ZEKE Fall 2019

CC: Are similar dynamics happening
across the African continent?
Lekgetho Makola viewing the Photo Incubator exhibition at the Photo Workshop Gallery.
Photo by Siphosihle Mkhwanazi.
beginning to author their work and stage
their images to tell a very particular story.
We still have a traditional documentary
photography practice, but overall we’re
seeing images going more toward fine arts.
People are redefining what an image is —
for example, introducing moving images,
because smartphone cameras or DSLRs
all have video functions. We see a lot of
experimentation, a beautiful mix of ideas,
still within the critical narrative space.
CC: The photo industry seems to be finally
diversifying. The more voices are let in, the
more the practice is questioned, and, with
it, who has the right to tell a story. Given
its roots, can there be photojournalism
without a Western filter?
LM: The practice of photography in the
continent is growing and people are
beginning to document themselves in their
own communities. A person who goes into
their township and knows the dynamics
of their home is able to photograph it in a
particular way, unlike for instance AFP or
Reuters photographers who parachute into
a village, photograph the story and leave.
We are hoping to host the 2019 World
Press Photo Awards here at the MPW, and
I was telling the people in Amsterdam that
it’s important for them to know there is this
reluctance to accept the World Press Photo
as the space that every year decides what
a good photograph is. It becomes difficult
for these juries to questions themselves
and their idea of photography, since
they already believe they are the leading
authorities in deciding what a good image
actually is.
There are many photographers from
outside Africa coming to the Continent
and photographing it, and their work gets
accepted to many festivals and biennales
in Europe, but it’s hard to find somebody
from the Continent, who photographs the
same issues, accepted in those spaces.
This is problematic. The question is:
what stories are being told, and for what
purpose? I think we are still living in a
residual colonial phase and it’s going to
take a bit to redefine the understanding
of photography, possibly through spaces
like ours, or others in Rwanda, Nigeria,
Ethiopia, Egypt. Currently, the challenge is
that what we teach in universities is based
on theories written from the perspective of
Europe, rather than of the continent or the
Global South.
CC: What can be done to diversify things
from within, in the Global North?
LM: I believe the answer can be in smaller
spaces where global partnerships can
happen more easily, grassroot-type of
places like the Bronx Documentary Center,
or smaller festivals where people can
interact with a crowd that thinks differently.
Any change that is going to happen
will be because of people who are in a
developmental stage right now, the new
generations. To begin to engage The New
York Times or National Geographic at this
stage won’t get us anywhere, because they
have the commercial obligations to keep
providing the sales they are providing to
their market. But there has to be focus on
online collaboration and curation of works
that can be shared and distributed widely
digitally. That’s one of the changes that can
have a much larger impact, because now
you don’t have to move physically from one
space to another.
LM: We’ve begun to share ideas across
the continent, using platforms such as
WhatsApp to engage but also to decide
on what type of programs to do. We have
the Centers of Learning for Photography in
Africa, and the main aim is for us across
the continent to share what are we doing,
what are the challenges we are facing,
and how do we support each other. Some
of us are quite long-running independent
institutions, like the MPW, compared to the
new photographic space in Kigali, which
just started a year ago.
We can share some of the successful
ways to find grants, how to do your balance
sheets, ensure that your photographic
hub runs and bring some type of infrastructure.
That is the basis of creating a healthy
photographic community.
We do understand that the dynamics
across the continent are different.
For example, at the Center of Learning
for Photography in Sudan, they have
challenges photographing in their own
communities because of censorship around
the practice, which is different if compared
to Nigeria, where they’re free, or to us
in South Africa, where photography is a
commodity and people can actually make
a living out of the practice. In Sudan it’s a
more conscious decision you take going
into the practice. There’s also the Center
in Egypt, where the online space and the
use of images actually created the revolution.
These are beautiful dynamics in the
Continent that continually inspire us to think
collaboratively around the practice.
CC: What are some of the emerging challenges?
LM: We need to begin to talk about
diversity within the Continent. It’s been
a male-dominated practice and it still is.
It’s still dangerous and hard for women
photographers to navigate the space to
photograph by themselves freely, because
of the violent nature of our spaces. These
are conversations that are continual, and
also have an impact on the type and style
of photography that is produced.
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