Legendary photographer to exhibit his work at Benoni Museum
The exhibition titled Names in Uphill Letters features a total of 108 of Mawela’s historiography of newsmakers.
Legendary photographer Jacob Mawela will host a solo photographic exhibition at the Benoni Museum from Heritage Day, September 24, until early next year.
Mawela is a Pimville-based freelance photojournalist and writer.
The exhibition titled Names in Uphill Letters features a total of 108 of Mawela’s historiography of newsmakers and aims to dispense visual literacy as a driver of social cohesion mainly, yet not exclusively, among the country’s millennials.
In an excerpt from his artist statement, Mawela states that the motivation for the project has been towards the dispensing of visual literacy among the country’s millennials, who he feels have fallen into the trap of the polarisation of the pre-1994 past of their parent’s generation.
“Through the privilege of personal access to his subjects, he delved into the personas behind individuals who hogged – and continue hogging – news media headlines. Included among his list of subjects are also names not precisely cloaked in glory but as the scholar in him asserts, he didn’t embark on his project as a judge of man, but rather as a roving eye merely fascinated by human nature,” read the statement.
“Names in Uphill Letters are exclusively documented on Ilford HP5 film. Presenting the project in a monochromatic prism – he contends – lends it a permanence which straddles across varying epochs.”
The exhibition is a never-seen-before visual presentation that has been made possible by funding from the National Arts Council. Paarl-based wine estate, Laborie Estate, will serve its select range of wines to guests at the exhibition’s auspicious opening.
To see Mawela’s work, residents may visit the museum on 60 Elston Avenue, Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 16:00.
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