Photo: X Fotomat website launch: Introducing Jabulani Dhlamini
Jabulani Dhlamini (b.1983, South Africa) lives and works in Johannesburg. Dhlamini majored in documentary photography at the Vaal University of Technology. From 2011-2012, Dhlamini was the recipient of the Edward Ruiz Mentorship and completed a year-long residency at the Market Photo Workshop.
In 2018, Dhlamini’s work was included in Five Photographers, A Tribute to David Goldblatt, a group exhibition in Johannesburg that was subsequently exhibited in Maputo (Mozambique), Maseru (Lesotho), Makhanda (National Arts Festival, SA), Durban (SA) and Bamako (Mali).
His recent work aims to explore how memory is created and archived within a community where the memory has been localised. His work is both figurative and abstract, resisting easy interpretation or categorisation.
Dhlamini is the project manager for ‘Of Soul and Joy’, a social and artistic initiative based in Thokoza, a township on Johannesburg’s East Rand. Its goal is to develop photography skills amongst the township’s vulnerable youth in order to open up new personal and professional horizons.
Dhlamini is represented by Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
Photograph from series iQhawekhazi
‘I wanted to collect the ambience of the event within me, then to pick up my camera while continuing to listen to the atmosphere – post-funeral, but not post-mourning’ – Jabulani Dhlamini
On 14 April 2018 Dhlamini attended Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s funeral at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto. He absorbed the charged atmosphere but left his camera untouched in his bag. When the crowds dispersed, the Johannesburg rain was heavy – a sign, Dhlamini thought, of the prevailing spiritual presence of ‘Mama Winnie’, invoking the phrase ‘upahla luwile’ (when you lose a mother the roof of the home has fallen in).
In this series, Dhlamini journeys from the official site of the funeral of Winne Madikezela-Mandela to informal memorial gatherings in Soweto, pointing his camera at symbolic expressions of mourning and memory.
*Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (1936-2018) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician, and the second wife of Nelson Mandela.
Visit Jabulani’s website: https://jabulanidhlamini.onfotomat.com
Photo: has partnered with visual website builder Fotomat to create websites showcasing the talents of nine African photographers. Aimed at increasing visibility of the photographers’ work and contemporary African photography as a whole at a time when Covid-19 has shifted interactions and engagement online, the websites play a pivotal role in creating platforms to showcase important work from across the continent.
The websites have officially been launched on 15 September 2021.
About Photo:
Photo: is a multi-operation platform for the development and promotion of socially engaged photography practices, photographers, and critical visual culture.
Through curatorial and educational projects throughout the African continent and beyond, Photo: promotes emerging and practicing photographers and photography with the aim to encourage critical and experimental approaches/responses, that challenge and stimulate how we think about photography and our world.
Further, through commissioning, producing and connecting photography projects and practitioners, Photo: wants to encourage dialogue, exchange, engagement and participation.
Central to its vision, is the idea that photography can be a delicate tool for social change.
Learn more about Photo::
About Fotomat:
Fotomat was built by the makers of Viewbook, a photo sharing platform and portfolio website builder for professionals that was founded in 2009.
Over the past two years the Fotomat team worked with artists, art educators, and photo industry professionals as part of a publication called "Transformations, Exploring Changes in and Around Photography". During this process it became apparent that there is a need for new and different ways to show image based work on the internet.
Disciplinary lines are blurred more and more every day, and many image makers are mixing video with still photography and other media in their work. They are looking for new ways to tell stories. To fill this void, the observations and ideas learned from Transformations have been applied to Fotomat and will benefit anyone looking to make a visual website, be it a simple portfolio or an immersive online exhibition.
Learn more about Fotomat:
For more information:
visit https://www.phototool.co.za/ or email info@phototool.co.za.
Learn more about the nine photographers selected to create websites with Photo: and Fotomat at https://www.phototool.co.za/2020/2021/9/15/photo-x-fotomat-launch-nine-websites-for-rising-african-photographers-1?fbclid=IwAR22N6Ds5ZyxI6O4RrRjmDrLcPjXXd7aHYFurhpJD5oeARW8zXP17Sjj88E
Websites for South African photographers were supported in part by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture.
Posted 20/10/2021.