25 Years of Training in Photography at Market Photo Workshop Public Talk

The Public Talk aims to trace the founding principles of Market Photo Workshop alongside the photography training and projects space programming, and further delve into how students’ visual activism, in response to the changing social political landscape and discourse in South Africa, has manifested in some alumni’s practice. Market Photo Workshop is in its’ 25th year of operation.

The talk seeks to present an intergenerational discussion that addresses the role of photography in a current South Africa, the future of photography education and mentorships, and placement of photography practice within the greater contemporary knowledge production, media and arts fields.

This discussion will begin with a presentation by the 2014 Tierney Fellow Matt Katt about his solo exhibition The Front, followed by a panel discussion lead by David Goldblatt, with Thembinkosi Goniwe, Lebohang Kganye, Buyaphi Mdledle and Dean Hutton.

Jacklynne Hobbs, who is an experienced media practitioner, Market Photo Workshop alumni and former Manager of the Photojournalism and Documentary Photography Programme, will moderate the discussion.

About the panel:

  • David Goldbatt (edited biography)

David Goldblatt is a renowned South African photographer and founder of the Market Photo Workshop. David’s work has won him several prizes and awards, is in numerous principal public collections, has been exhibited extensively and published in various books.

Thembinkosi Goniwe is a curator, academic and writer. He has curated a variety of significant exhibitions, most recently SPace: Currencies in Contemporary African Art at Museum Africa in Johannesburg in the context of the 2010 World Cup. His critical writings have been featured in a variety of local and international journals. He has a BA Fine Arts and MA Fine Arts from the University of Cape Town and is in the process of completing a Phd in Art History through Cornell University.

  • Lebohang Kganye

Lebohang Kganye is an artist living and working in Johannesburg, South Africa. Kganye began her photography studies in 2009 at the Market Photo Workshop and completed the Advanced Photography Programme in 2011 and is currently studying Fine Arts at the University of Johannesburg. Over the past five years she has participated in photography masterclasses and group exhibitions locally and internationally. Kganye was the recipient of the Tierney Fellowship Award in 2012, leading to her solo exhibition Ke Lefa Laka at the Market Photo Workshop Gallery. She created an animation from the series, which was launched on Mandela Day 2014 in Scotland, entitled Pied Piper’s Voyage. Kganye was then selected as the Featured Artist for the 17th Business and Arts South Africa Awards in 2014.

Although primarily a photographer, Kganye’s photography often incorporates her interest in sculpture and performance of the archive and memory. She confronts her collected and altered photographs, the artist’s and her family’s, as material for both memory and fantasy. She explores fictional history by using archives to merge illusive characters with “real” characters in a new universe.

Buyaphi Mdledle completed the Photo Workshop’s Advanced Programme in Photography in 2003 and has taught photography intermittently at the Alf Khumalo School of Photography, Soweto; City Varsity, Cape Town and from 2010 at the Photo Workshop. Mdledle has exhibited locally and initiated a community photography project ‘Soweto Photo Album’ in Pimville, Soweto.

  • Dean Hutton (edited biography)

Dean Hutton is a genderqueer photojournalist and artist who lives and works in Johannesburg. Ongoing fields of interest include: Portraiture as co-authorship, Social media as narrative, Technology as self-reflection, Private narratives, Public conceits & Queer identity as Body of Work. Dean works across a number of media including photography, video, social media and performance art.

Dean is a versatile, and experienced photographer and artist whose work intrigues and challenges as it subverts dominant views. Much of her work reflects her ongoing concern with social issues but she now expresses herself in myriad of forms, including video, installation, intervention and performance art. She is a Ruth First Fellow and was recently awarded an international artists’ residency by the Africa Centre. She was been selected as one of the 200 Top Young South Africans in 2010 and was a finalist in the Spier Contemporary Artcompetition.

Dean has worked extensively with the Goethe Institut, Institut Francais, ArtatWork, The Sandton Central Public Arts Programme, 2610 South Architects and The Heinrich Boell Foundation.

For more information, please contact:
Bianca Mońa
biancam@marketphotoworkshop.co.za

or

Dahlia Maubane
dahliam@marketphotoworkshop.co.za

Tel: (011) 834-1444

The Market Photo Workshop is a division
of The Market Theatre Foundation

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