Santu Mofokeng

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Santu Mofokeng (born October 19, 1956 in what would later become Soweto , Johannesburg , according to other information in Newclare near Johannesburg; † January 26, 2020 in Johannesburg) was a South African photographer .

Life

Mofokeng grew up in Orlando East , which became part of Soweto in 1963. He began his career in Soweto in the 1970s as a street photographer, taking photos of family and friends, among other things. He learned photography from David Goldblatt . In 1981 the Afrikaans-language daily Beeld hired him as a laboratory assistant. A year later he worked for the Chamber of Mines. In 1983 he became a member of the Afrapix association , a small group of photographers who belonged to different ethnic groups and who opposed apartheid . At the same time he wrote photo reports for New Nation magazine . Projects such as Fictional Biography or Train Church on religious rituals emerged.

In 1988 he became a research associate and photographer at the Institute for African Studies at Witwatersrand University . In 1990 he had his first exhibition (Like Shifting Sand) in the Market Galleries in Johannesburg. In 1991 he received the first Ernest Cole scholarship for the exhibited works, which enabled him to study in New York City at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan . In 1996 he completed his photo essay Chasing Shadows , which was subsequently shown on three continents.

In 2013, Mofokeng designed the German pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale alongside Ai Weiwei , Romuald Karmakar and Dayanita Singh .

Prizes and awards

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

  • 1997: Chasing Shadows , Gertrude Posel Gallery at Witwatersrand University.
  • 1998: Lunarscapes , Nederlands Foto Instituut, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
  • 2006: Invoice , Iziko National Gallery of South Africa , Cape Town , South Africa.
  • 2007: Invoice , StandardBank Art Gallery, Johannesburg.
  • 2008: Homeland Security , Johannesburg Art Gallery , Johannesburg.
  • 2010: Let's Talk , Arts on Main, Johannesburg.
  • 2010: Remaining Past , Minshar Art Institute, Tel Aviv, Israel.
  • 2011: Chasing Shadows , Jeu de Paume , Paris; then: Kunsthalle Bern . Catalog.

Group exhibitions

literature

  • Exhibition catalog - Santu Mofokeng et al .: Chasing Shadows. Santu Mofokeng: Thirty Years of Photographic Essays. Prestel, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-7913-4585-7 .
  • Samo Gal (Ed.): African Photographers from the Walther Collection. Distance and Desire: Encounter with the Africa Archive of the Walther Collection. Steidl, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-86930-651-3 .
  • Santu Mofokeng: The black Photo Album. Steidl , Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-86930-310-9 .
  • Santu Mofokeng: Stories 1. Steidl, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-86930-971-2 .
  • Santu Mofokeng: Stories 2-4. Steidl, Göttingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-95829-104-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Clifton Crais, Patricia Hayes: Everyday Life in Soweto: The Photography of Santu Mofokeng. In: Thomas V. McClendon: The South African Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Duke University Press, Durham 2013, ISBN 9780822377450 , p. 261. Excerpts from books.google.de
  2. ↑ Alex Greenberger: Santu Mofokeng, photographer who elegantly immortalized lives of black South Africans, is dead at 64. artnews.com on January 27, 2020, accessed on January 28, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Mofokeng, Santu
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African photographer
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Soweto , Johannesburg or Newclare
DATE OF DEATH January 26, 2020
Place of death Johannesburg