Thandolwemfundo Ngidi’s road to the OSF scholarship

The Market Photo Workshop had the opportunity to offer a South African recipient, Thandolwemfundo Ngidi, a full scholarship with support of The Open Society Foundation to study an Intermediate Course in Photography.

About Thando:

It was his days studying Mechanical Engineering and getting his hands of his first smart phone that opened up his eyes to photography. Ngidi used to take photographs of graffiti in down-town Johannesburg every time he would come into the city for classes. The more photographs he took, the more hooked he became in the craft of photography.

When he finally completed studying Mechanical Engineering, he realised how difficult it was to get a job. Constantly searching and applying, it was his time on the internet where he came across a special programme done by the Market Photo Workshop in collaboration with the Sibikwa Arts Centre in Benoni. The Sibikwa Total SA Photography Training Project catered to aspiring photographers in the East Rand.

Following 10 weeks of this photography course Ngidi went on to apply for the Market Photo Workshop’s 2018 Foundation Course in Photography. “I saw an open call on Facebook, which I had to write a motivational letter and submit 12 photographs for. It took me two weeks to do but I really wanted to get into the programme so I did my best.”

Today, Ngidi is weeks into his Intermediate Course in Photography, which he sees as a great learning opportunity. “I don’t want to define myself as a photographer as yet, instead I want to take the time to develop my current projects, gain some technical ability and learn from it. I was to do a body of work, it would be a community collaboration in order to stop the fear of photographers in communities. I saw how unhappy people would get when I would be around taking photographs, so I want to make that fear less,” said Ngidi.

With learning and growth on his mind, only the future knows what kind of photographer Thandolwemfundo Ngidi will be after the Market Photo Workshop.

About The Open Society Foundation South Africa:

The Open Society Foundation South Africa is a non-profit grant-making organization that supports the civil society sector. The organization has a mission to “promote the values, institutions and practices of an open, non-racial and non-sexist, democratic civil society.