Musa Nxumalo

Musa Nxumalo was born in 1986 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He completed courses in photography at Market Photo Workshop in 2008 with the late Thabiso Sekgala. Since then, he has participated in several workshops and master classes. His photography integrates social documentary to explore the youth of South Africa, their identity and culture, as well as the journey to self-discovery. His exuberant nightlife images carry an energy and enthusiasm that can only be shown by someone who is living, growing, and discovering themselves in that same world. Nxumalo has produced three bodies of work for which he has received critical recognition – Alternative Kidz (2009), In/Glorious (2012), and The Anthology of Youth (2016). The series present his peers’ fashion choices and the music they listen. His work challenges prevailing social and racial stereotypes within South African culture. It gives voice to discontented youth within his community who are trying to express themselves freely.

Sabelo Mlangeni

Sabelo Mlangeni was born in 1980 in Driefontein, South Africa. In 2001, he moved to Johannesburg where he joined the Market Photo Workshop, graduating in 2004. He developed an interest in tracking the changing relationships between urban and rural lifestyles by documenting the gay life. In the series Country Girls (2009), Mlangeni spent 6 years in a rural community to portray the life of gay couples. He captured the glamour of drag queens, hairstylists, and beauty pageant contestants, who are still often perceived differently, even in South Africa with its progressive laws. For the series Men Only (2009), Mlangeni spent almost two years photographing outside a men-only hostel in Johannesburg, before he was allowed to go inside. Once he got access, he documented the daily routines of the residents – mostly migrant workers, who often face violence, sexual abuse, and illegal trafficking. Mlangeni has released two books of work containing the aforementioned series.

Thabiso Sekgala

Thabiso Sekgala was born in 1981 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He studied at the Market Photo Workshop and graduated in 2008. His work explores themes of abandonment, memory, spatial politics and concept of home, focusing on South African communities facing the long shadow of apartheid. In 2009, Sekgala began working on his major Homeland essay, about the landscapes of his youth. He photographed the region’s pervasive brick and tin-roof homes, investing his three-quarter studies of these inanimate things with the same intensity as his burgeoning portrait studies. One of his early portraits depicted a young woman wearing a yellow blouse and standing beneath an ornate yellow light shade. After receiving the Tierney Fellowship – a prestigious award allowing a yearlong mentorship with an established professional, he started working with Mikhael Subotzky. In 2012, Sekgala worked on Second Transition, a series that describes the labour strife that has gripped the platinum mining region in the north of Johannesburg. Thabiso Sekgala died on October 15, 2014.

Mikhael Subotzky

Mikhael Subotzky was born in 1981 in Cape Town, South Africa. He studied photography at the Michaelis School of Fine Art and first gained recognition in 2004 for his BFA series, Die Vier Hoeke, which documents the life inside the infamous Cape Town’s Pollsmoor prison. In 2006, he became one of the youngest photographers ever to join the elite photo agency Magnum. Subotzky works across multiple media, including photography, video, film and, most recently, painting. He reflects on the structures of narrative and representation, as well as the relationship between social storytelling and the formal poetics of image making. In the series Beaufort West (2008), he photographed in and around a prison built within a traffic circle in the small town of Beaufort West. For six years, he collaborated with Patrick Waterhouse to capture Ponte City – a single iconic building in Johannesburg, resulting in their book and exhibition Ponte City (2014).

Essop Twins

Hasan and Husain Essop are twin South African Artists born in 1985 in Cape Town. They both received their BFA in 2006 and their Postgraduate Diploma in Art from the Michaelis School of Fine Art. They started to work together on the Halaal Art (2009) project shortly after their graduation. Focusing on photography, their work concerns the role of the individual in society. They are especially interested in the role of young Muslim males in a secular environment. After their first project, the Essop Twins went through an artistic and personal journey to other projects, notably Remembrance (2012) and Unrest (2014).  These projects document the waves of xenophobic violence, as well as the struggle for land, adequate housing, education, and equality in South Africa. In their digitally composited photographs, the artists often use themselves as subjects, as Islam forbids the depiction of the human figure. By limiting their representations in this way, the twins create personal - rather than objective - experiences.