Tierney Fellowship Award recipient Tshepiso Mazibuko
©Tshepiso Mazibuko
17 October 2018
18h00
The Photo Workshop Gallery
The 2017 Tierney Fellowship at the Market Photo Workshop, in partnership with the Tierney Family Foundation, was awarded to Market Photo Workshop’s alumnus Tshepiso Mazibuko. The aim of the Tierney Fellowship is to provide an emerging photographer with the opportunity to develop their career and skills through a mentorship programme, an ideal space for a photographer to develop a body of work.
Mazibuko was mentored by John Fleetwood.
Tshepiso Mazibuko’s Ho tshepa ntshepedi ya bontshepe looks at the political designation of “born-free” for black youth born after 1994 in South Africa. The title of the body of work, ‘Ho tshepa ntshepedi ya bontshepe’, is a Sesotho proverb meaning to expect something that will never happen. Mazibuko positions this proverb as a reading of the term "born-free”, which places youth in a position of temporal “freedom”. However, due to the structural remnants of apartheid this freedom has not been fully realised for all. This is further complicated by cross-generational desires and hopes that meet through political and familial expectations on “born-frees”. Mazibuko turns her camera inwards to uncover her position in relation to her community within this particular post-1994 societal construct.
About Tshepiso Mazibuko
Tshepiso Mazibuko was born in Thokoza, South Africa in 1995. Mazibuko uses the medium of photography to add commentary on politics, society, landscape and history. Mazibuko completed her studies in photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg in 2016. She has exhibited her work at Ithuba Art Gallery in Johannesburg, The Ghent Photo Festival in Belgium, The Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Warren Editions in Cape Town, the Art Africa Fair in Cape Town, as well as the Addis Foto Fest in Ethiopia. She lives and works in Thokoza.
Tshepiso Mazibuko exhibition opening speech. ©Jabulani Dhlamini
About Mentor John Fleetwood
About The Tierney Fellowship
The Tierney Fellowship was created in 2003 by The Tierney Family Foundation to support emerging artists in the field of photography. The primary goal of the Fellowship is to find aspiring artists who will be tomorrow's leaders and to assist them in overcoming challenges that photographers face at the start of their careers.
Previous Fellows:
Tracy Edser
Simangele Kalisa
Thabiso Sekgala (1981-2014)
Mack Magagane
Lebohang Kganye
Sipho Gongxeka
Matt Kay
Tsepo Gumbi
About Market Photo Workshop
For over 20 years, the Market Photo Workshop has played a pivotal role in the training of South Africa’s photographers, ensuring that visual literacy reaches neglected and marginalised parts of South African society. Since it was founded in 1989 by world-renowned photographer David Goldblatt, the Photo Workshop has established itself as an important training institution for South African photographers who otherwise have no access to photography. Many of our alumni have changed and transformed the landscape of contemporary South African photography.