Santu Mofokeng

Santu Mofokeng was born in 1956 in Johannesburg, South Africa. While still a teenager, he started his career as a street photographer in Soweto before working as a photojournalist. He worked to challenge the ways that news photography have been used to depict social realities. After joining the Afrapix collective in 1985, Mofokeng risked his life several times to document the struggle against apartheid. His experiences of violence and squalor led him to reflect on the portrayal of black people. After this period, Mofokeng began to explore the meaning of landscape in relation to ownership, power, and ecology, but avoid an open political expression. Through his images, he questions the current condition of the environment and its influence on the residents’ life. Mofokeng participated in several solo and group exhibitions locally and abroad. In 1992, he received the prestigious Mother Jones Award for Africa, and in 2009, the Prince Claus Award.

Boubacar Touré Mandémory

Boubacar Touré Mandémory was born in 1956 in Dakar, Senegal. A self-taught photographer, he learned photography in his youth when wandering in the streets with his first camera. In 1986, Mandémory organized his first exhibition in Gorée with photographs representing homeless and disturbed people. Mainly interested by the public places, he took various images of people in the streets. In 1989, Mandémory managed a collective platform to distribute his images. A short experience but which helps him to meet other photographers and discover other styles. In 1992, Mandémory started to work as a photojournalist by covering events in Western Africa. He collaborated with various local and French newspapers. Mandémory also established the department of photography of the Pan-African News Agency which provided an online library of digital photos. A great figure of Senegalese photography, he created the Month of Photography in Dakar in 1994, and he participated in numerous exhibitions in Africa and worldwide.

Akinbode Akinbiyi

Akinbode Akinbiyi was born in 1946 in Oxford, United Kingdom of Nigerian parents. After completing his studies in literature in Nigeria and England, he took up photography in 1972. He is based in Berlin and has been working as a photographer since 1974. Through the lens of his camera, Akinbiyi explores the burgeoning major cities of Africa including Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos, Dakar, Addis Ababa, and Cairo. While exploring the cities, he is fascinated by the evolution of the environment and is tempted to invade other people’s space by taking images of their activity. He considers himself as a wanderer who tries to capture the evolution of urban spaces. Akinbiyi is also a writer whose interest is to document human condition as it is, with no romanticism or despair. He has participated in several exhibitions as well as curated some exhibitions including Dakar Biennial and Bamako Encounters. Akinbiyi has founded a cultural center in Durban and has led workshops in various countries.