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20/11/2006 |
Dec exhib for foremost
photographer Santu Mofokeng
Opening on 2 December at the Iziko S A National Gallery in Cape Town, is 'Invoice', a
survey show of the work of Santu Mofokeng, one of South Africa's
foremost photographers and, according to international curator
Simon Njami, 'one of the most important photographers of his
generation'.
The exhibition, which runs
until 2 May 2007, includes photographs from virtually all his
major bodies of work produced in the period between 1982 and
2006, and is a landmark event designed to coincide with the
photographer's 50th year.
Santu Mofokeng's photographic career had its genesis in 1973
when, while still at school, he started working as a
street-photographer to make money. He subsequently realized
photography's subversive potential when he saw pictures of the
June 16 riots in which he was participant and witness. In the
mid-1980s he joined the Afrapix Collective, an independent
photographic agency that played a leading role in documenting
popular resistance against apartheid during this period. From an
early stage Mofokeng exhibited an independent approach and
produced images that refuse to be overtly political, but
nonetheless contain a fundamental political dimension. His
deviations from conventional subject matter have included
photographic enquiries into spirituality - a continuing interest
that produced the extraordinary series Chasing Shadows - and
investigations into the meaning of 'landscape' in relation to
ownership, power and memory.
Santu Mofokeng has received acknowledgement for his photographic
work not only locally but also in the international art world.
He has been the recipient of numerous awards and has exhibited
extensively in Europe and elsewhere. Recently he has
participated in the international travelling exhibition 'Africa
Remix' (2004-6) and in 2004 was the only South African chosen to
participate among ten foremost international photographers such
as Sebastiao Salgado, James Nachtwey and Annie Leibovitz, in
Beijing's Forbidden City International Photography Festival. He
has had solo exhibitions of his work in New York and
Johannesburg.
Invoice has been realised through partnerships with Gallery MOMO
in Johannesburg, and with Autograph ABP, London. Autograph is an
international, non profit-making photographic arts agency
established in the UK in 1988 to address the lack of
representation for a constituency of photographers which
historically has been ignored. Autograph develops, exhibits and
publishes the work of photographers from culturally diverse
backgrounds and advocates their inclusion in all areas of
exhibition, publishing, education and commerce in the visual
arts.
The Gallery is open daily except Mondays from 10:00-17:00. Enq:
+27 (0)21-467-4660.
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