Brent Stirton

Brent Stirton was born in 1969 in Durban, South Africa. He studied journalism at Durban Technikon and whilst still a student he began writing about the violence in KwaZulu-Natal for The Weekly Mail newspaper. He started taking pictures of the struggle and factional violence at the end of apartheid in 1994. For the first five years of his new career behind the lens, Stirton worked mainly in Africa covering the South African situation as well as regional conflicts throughout other parts of Africa. He joined Getty Images in 2003 and his works has been published in numerous magazines including National Geographic, The New York Times, Newsweek, and various NGO groups and foundations. Since 2008, Stirton has documented the ravages of wars happening on the African continent and threatening its precious wild animals, which are all victims of senseless and criminal poaching against a backdrop of almost universal indifference. In 2017, his investigation for National Geographic into rhinoceros horn trafficking received a World Press Photo award.

James Oatway

James Oatway was born in 1978 in Phalaborwa, South Africa. He graduated with a bachelor degree of journalism from Rhodes University in Grahamstown. Oatway started his career in photojournalism at Die Burger, a regional newspaper. He later joined the Sunday Times newspaper where he became Chief Photographer, covering issues of political injustice, social inequality, and people affected by conflicts in South Africa and the African continent. In 2015, he photographed a fatal attack by South African men on Mozambican migrant Emmanuel Sithole. The images of the attack sparked outrage and made international headlines. Oatway has been freelancing since 2016, focusing his work on under-reported stories in Africa. For the Red Ants (2018) series, he gained unprecedented access to the clearance operations conducted by the Red Ants – a private eviction and security company notorious for their violence. He painted an unflinching portrait of the hated squads who are symptomatic of the social problems and inequality still plaguing the country.

Alexia Webster

Alexia Webster was born in 1979 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Upon graduating from Wits University and completing the Intermediate Photography course at the Market Photo Workshop, she worked in the film industry on music videos and TV series. In 2004, she left the film industry and spent the next five years travelling through South Africa and the African continent as a freelance photojournalist. In 2007, Webster studied photojournalism and documentary photography at the International Centre of Photography in New York City. Her work explores issues around migration, identity and intimacy, documenting and portraying some of the continent places, people and struggles. Her recent work highlights the plights of individuals who live in refugee camps around the world after fleeing violence in their home countries. Her photographs have been published in various newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, Washington Post, Wired, Le Monde, and Time magazine.

Tracy Edser

Tracy Edser was born in 1982 in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 2008, she trained in photojournalism and documentary photography at the Market Photography Workshop founded by David Goldblatt. Following this yearlong program, she was awarded the Tierney Fellowship grant to produce a photo documentary.  Working with her mentor Mikhael Subotzky, she produced a documentary film titled Amelioration (2009), which was exhibited internationally and lead to further collaborations and projects. The documentary outlines the complex social and personal realities of individuals recovering from addiction and substance abuse. Edser's photographs are intimate, personal, and deeply moving, and capture the harsh realities of social isolation and reproach. In 2013, she published Window Rwanda, a collection of instant interactions captured through the window of a van that drove her between Kigali and out-lying hospitals while working for Operation Smile, an international medical non-profit organization.