Lindokuhle Sobekwa: A New Generation of South African Photographers Shaping Global Narratives

 

Lindokuhle Sobekwa (b. 1995, Katlehong, South Africa) is part of a generation of South African photographers born after the first democratic elections of 1994. Through his participation in the Of Soul and Joy photography education programme in Thokoza in 2012, he realized that photography would be an essential tool to tell stories that concern and interest him.

 

Sobekwa exhibited for the first time in 2013 as part of a group show in Thokoza organized by the Rubis Mécénat foundation. His photo essay Nyaope (2014) was published in the Mail & Guardian (South Africa), Vice magazine’s annual Photo Issue, and De Standaard (Belgium). In 2015, Sobekwa was awarded a scholarship to study at the Market Photo Workshop. That same year, his series Nyaope was exhibited in another group show, Free From My Happiness, organized by Rubis Mécénat for the International Photo Festival of Ghent (Belgium). The exhibition toured additional sites in Belgium and South Africa, and a publication edited by Tjorven Bruyneel included a selection of works.

 

 

 

Sobekwa was selected by the Magnum Foundation for Photography and Social Justice (NYC) to develop the project I Carry Her Photo with Me. In 2018, he received the Magnum Foundation Fund to continue his long-term project Nyaope. In 2021, Sobekwa completed a residency at A4 Foundation in Cape Town, culminating in a two-person exhibition with Mikhael Subotzky titled Tell It to the Mountains. Sobekwa opened his first museum show in 2022 at Huis Marseille (Netherlands), featuring the body of work Umkhondo: Tracing Memory as part of the summer programme The Beauty of the World So Heavy. His hand-made photobook, I Carry Her Photo with Me, was included in African Cosmologies at the FotoFest Biennial in Houston (2020), curated by Mark Sealy.

 

Sobekwa’s work was shown at Goodman Gallery in March 2023 as part of the photography show Against the Grain, alongside Ernest Cole, David Goldblatt, Ruth Motau, and Ming Smith. He became an official member of Magnum Photos in 2022 and gave a lecture about his practice at TATE Modern earlier this year as part of his John Kobal Foundation Fellowship. Sobekwa was awarded the 2023 FNB Art Prize, becoming the first documentary photographer to win this prestigious award.