Zanele Muholi completed an Advanced Programme in Photography at the Photo Workshop and has gone on to become one of the most acclaimed female artists in South Africa. Muholi’s interest lies in the black female body in a frank, yet intimate, way that challenges the history of the portrayal of black women’s bodies in documentary photography. She has won numerous awards including the Fine Prize for an emerging artist at the 2013 Carnegie International; a Prince Claus Award (2013); the Index on Censorship – Freedom of Expression art award (2013); and the Casa Africa award for best female photographer and a Fondation Blachère award at Les Rencontres de Bamako biennial of African photography (2009). Her Faces and Phases series has shown at, among others, Documenta 13; the South African Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale; and the 29th São Paulo Biennale. She was shortlisted for the 2015 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize for her publication Faces and Phases: 2006-14 (Steidl/The Walther Collection). Muholi is an Honorary Professor of the University of the Arts, Bremen.

Jodi Bieber studied at the Market Photo Workshop in the early nineties and has gone on to win countless awards, most notably the 2010 World Press Photo of the Year award for her portrait of Bibi Aisha that featured on the cover of Time Magazine. She was also the winner of the Prix de le l’Union Europeene at the Recontres de Bamako Biennale Africaine de la Photographie, November 2009. Her three monographs “Between Dogs and Wolves – Growing up with South Africa, 1996; Soweto, 2010 and Real Beauty 2014 and other projects are exhibited in solo and group shows locally and abroad. Bieber also mentors students with their grants to produce projects, and she gives lectures and photographic workshops all over the world.

Sabelo Mlangeni studied at the Photo Workshop from 2001- 2004. He won the Tollman Award for the Visual Arts in 2009. In addition to Stevenson, he has held solo shows at Aula der Akademie der Bildenden Kunste Wien, Austria (2014); Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg (2013) and Iceberg Projects, Chicago (2012). Notable group exhibitions include Public Intimacy: Art and Social Life in South Africa at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2014); Apartheid and After at Huis Marseille, Amsterdam (2014); Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life, Haus der Kunst, Munich (2013); Distance and Desire: Encounters with the African Archive at the Walther Collection in Ulm, Germany (2013); the Lubumbashi Biennale (2013); the Liverpool Biennial exhibition The Unexpected Guest (2012); the 9th Rencontres de Bamako African Photography Biennal in Mali (2011); the Lagos Photo Festival, Nigeria (2011); Figures and Fictions: Contemporary South African photography at the V&A Museum, London (2011); and I am not afraid: The Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg, Johannesburg Art Gallery (2010).

Musa Nxumalo studied at the Photo Workshop in 2008 and 2009 and was the fourth recipient of the Edward Ruiz Fellowship. Nxumalo has had four solo exhibitions and a range of group exhibitions both locally and internationally including; For Those Who LiveIn It in the Netherlands, 2010, Space Between Us in Germany, 2013 and My Joburg at Maison Rouge Gallery in Paris, 2013. Recent exhibitions include In Search Of… which showcased two bodies of work Alternative-Kidz (2008) and In/Glorious (2012) and traveled between SMAC Stellenbosch and the Goethe Insitute, Johannesburg, 2015. Nxumalo has also won several awards such as 1st prize in Visual Art for the Impact Awards 2010, 2nd Prize for the MTNCIT:Y Festival 2009.  Most recently his book In Search Of… was shortlisted as one of the ten finalists for the FIRST Book Awards 2015. The book is currently nominated for Fourthwall books publishing award.

Mack Magagane completed the Advanced Course in photography in 2010. He has been exhibited both locally and internationally. His series, …in this city, which was produced during his 2011/12 Tierney Fellowship at the Market Photo Workshop, was first exhibited at the Photo Workshop Gallery in 2012 and has since travelled to Portugal, France and Germany. His projects have been shown in numerous biennales and galleries across the country and in Europe. Magagane was the 2011 ACT ImpACT Award for Visual Art recipient and later in 2013, was inducted in Mail&Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans. At the end of 2013, Magagane completed a three month residency at Centre Photographique d’Île-de-France, Paris, France as part of the French – South Africa season in France.

Jay Caboz completed the Photojournalism and Photography Documentary Programme in 2010. The award winning journalist is most easily found wandering the streets of Johannesburg hunting for photographs.  On his off days, he’ll pretty much do the same anywhere in Africa. His obsession with the photographic lens is directly proportional to his interest in the way African’s tell their stories. In 2015, Jay was awarded the Standard Bank Sikuvile Young Journalist of the Year and was a double award winner at the Zimeo Excellence in Media Awards. He completed his Honours in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand (2009) and Journalism (2012). Jay was selected in collaboration with Christine Frisinghelli of Camera Austria Graz and the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg as the photographer in residence at the ISBK International Salzburg Summer Academy.

Lebohang Kganye completed the Advanced Photography Programme in 2011. Kganye is currently studying Fine Arts at the University of Johannesburg. Although primarily a photographer, Kganye’s photography often incorporates her interest in sculpture and performance of the archive and memory. She was the recipient of the Tierney Fellowship Award in 2012, leading to her solo exhibition Ke Lefa Laka at The Photo Workshop Gallery. Kganye was selected as the Featured Artist for the 17th Business and Arts South Africa Awards in 2014 as well the Bamako Encounters Biennale of African Photography in 2015 where she was awarded the Jury Prize.