Photo: x Fotomat website launch: Introducing Jansen Van Staden
Born in Potchefstroom in 1986, Jansen Van Staden uses street photography as a conceptual entry point to reflect on personal and social constructs of belonging and disconnect.
He became a fellow at the Goethe Institut’s Photographers’ Masterclass in 2017 and graduated in 2018. His work was shown in Cities and Memory at Brandts, Odense as part of the Photo Biennale in Denmark (2016) and in Nimes, France as part of the South African show “Resiste” at NegPos gallery (2017). He recently received the CAP prize (2019) for his series Microlight, and the concurrent exhibitions and screenings have started traveling Europe and Africa. Van Staden was a nominee for the 2020 Paul Huf Award.
He recently launched Microlight as a photobook. The photobook was exhibited at the 2020 Photobook Week Aarhus festival as part of the exhibition Intimacy and Resistance, curated by John Fleetwood. Van Staden lives and works in Cape Town and is represented by From here on (Photo:).
Microlight
'Microlight' was initiated after the death of van Staden’s father in a microlight accident in Kenya in 2011. Van Staden later found a letter from his father to his therapist detailing acts he committed as a seventeen-year old conscript in the South African Defence Force deployed to the South African Border War.
The photography series follows his attempts to unravel the mystery of his father while also questioning ideas of nationalism, and first-hand and intergenerational trauma which are being confronted by younger, post-war generations across the region and around the world.
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.
Visit Jansen’s website here: https://jansenvanstaden.com
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 25/10/2021