Photo: X Fotomat launch nine websites for rising African photographers
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.
Featured photographers:
Godelive Kasangati Kabena (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Godelive Kasangati Kabena is a Congolese photographer living and working in Kinshasa. Her work is concerned with questions of personal and cultural identity, memory, and place.
https://godelivekasangati.onfotomat.com
Jabulani Dhlamini (South Africa)
Jabulani Dhlamini is a Johannesburg based photographer and project manager for ‘Of Soul and Joy’. His recent work aims to explore how memory is created and archived within a community where the memory has been localized.
https://jabulanidhlamini.onfotomat.com
Jansen van Staden (South Africa)
Jansen van Staden, based in Cape Town, uses street photography as a conceptual entry point to reflect on personal and social constructs of belonging and disconnect. His project Microlight has been self-published as a photobook.
Kelebogile Ntladi (South Africa)
Kelebogile Ntladi’s work is concerned with deconstructing gender roles and explores themes of identity, history, and Afrofuturism. She explores the experience of being black and queer in contemporary South Africa, speaking to trauma and the potential for healing within black families. She is based in Johannesburg.
https://kelebogilentladi.onfotomat.com
Mauro Vombe (Mozambique)
Mauro Vombe is a Maputo-based photographer whose work draws from his earlier experiences in theatre - wanting to unveil hidden feelings. He is interested in how the individual is positioned and understood within the collective.
https://maurovombe.onfotomat.com/
Moss Moeng (South Africa)
Moss Moeng’s work has been featured in several group exhibitions, in South Africa and also in Denmark. He is a founding member of the BLD-Collective, a collective bringing together young emerging artists, especially from Soweto to develop and forefront black narratives.
https://mossmoeng.onfotomat.com/
Nizar Saleh (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Nizar Saleh is a photographer, director and videographer based in Kinshasa. His photographic work considers the relationship between people and their environments. He is deeply influenced by the city of Kinshasa and the stories of the people who live there.
https://nizarsaleh.onfotomat.com
Neptune Alexandre (Angola)
His work focuses on questions of identity and belonging, with a special focus on the influence of external dominant cultures on youth in Africa. His practice is informed by having found himself without a sense of belonging to his Angolan national or cultural identity nor to his upbringing in Lisbon.
https://neptunealexandresitescom.onfotomat.com
Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo (South Africa)
Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo is a photographer based in Lawley, Johannesburg. He uses the tavern run by his parents as a studio in which to investigate themes of first-hand and generational trauma, violence and memory. He was an overall winner of the 2020 Blurring the Lines award.
https://thembinkosihlatshwayo.onfotomat.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:
Websites for South African photographers were supported in part by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture.
Posted 15/09/2021