The Market Theatre Foundation presents Living Legacy, a photographic group exhibition at the Market Photo Workshop, from June 29 to July 30.
Living Legacy explores a selection of images from the Market Photo Workshop archives from 2007 to 2022. It reflects on how the creation and recreation of images in photography have evolved as well as serve as a reflection and a reminder of the past and how that past informs the future.
Through reviving the work that has until now been silently resting in the archives and bringing it out in this form for the world to see, we ask how has this work shifted and shaped our understanding and what meaning and lasting impact does it have?
Through this revival, these images once again occupy our creative space and collective imagination, offering us a new opportunity to understand ourselves and the world we live in.
The exhibition is curated by alumni of the institution, Fezeka Mophethe and Dianah Chiyangwa and was mentored by Refilwe Nkomo.
Bongani Mahlangu, the head of Market Photo Workshop said a photographer by the name of Yann Arthus-Bertrand once said that ‘The earth is art, the photographer is only a witness.’
“This reflective exhibition of selected works from archives dating over a decade is in a way a recreation of art, a reflection on various events that have contributed to shaping what has evolved into the present day.
“It is our collective responsibility not only to ensure the safeguarding of our historical records, but also to use lessons from the past by engaging in a campaign to broaden public awareness of the usefulness of archival resources in understanding our past, addressing the complex issues of the present, and making intelligent choices to shape our destiny,” he said.
All public programmes are free and open to the public.
What you need to know:
• Living Legacy exhibition opening June 29, 18:00 until 21:00, Market Photo Workshop.
• Legacy Exchange Last Thursday Talks, Market Photo Workshop, June 30, 12:00 to 14:00
• Curator Walkabout, Market Photo Workshop, July 9, 11:00 to 14:00.
• Finissage and virtual exhibition launch, Market Photo Workshop, July 30, 11:00 to 14:00.
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About the curators
• Dianah Chiyangwa is a Zimbabwean-born freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer and writer based in Johannesburg.
Her work focuses on women and children, migration, health, and environmental issues.
Her journey began in 2014 after she completed her photojournalism and documentary photography courses at the Market Photo Workshop. In 2019, she participated in the illegal wildlife poaching and trafficking training workshop and digital identity in Africa through the Wits-Journalism Africa China reporting project.
In 2020, she completed epidemiology 101 online for African-based journalists through McGill International TB Centre, Chatham House, MESHA Science and the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism.
She is a Top 30 in the 2020 and 2021 Media Monitoring Africa and Isu Elihle Awards shortlist, as well as a 2021 Agenda 2063 Photojournalism Award finalist. Chiyangwa is also a 2021/22 International Women’s Media Foundation Gender Justice Reporting Fellow, a 2022 Code for Africa Data Journalism Fellow and African Women in Media Environmental Journalism 2022 Fellow.
• Fezeka Jacqueline Mophethe is a 23-year-old visual artist working in photography.
Based in Vosloorus, Boksburg, she attended the Market Photo Workshop from 2019 to 2020 where she completed the foundation course, the intermediate course and the advanced programme in Photography course.
Mophethe started photography by taking images of herself and things around her using her cellphone.
Her mother bought her a camera in 2018, where her love for photography grew.
She was fascinated by self-portraiture and a bit of street photography.
The photographers that inspire her work are Carrie Mae Weems, Cindy Sherman and Vivian Maier. Mophethe has a body of work named Ubhuhle Bam (my beauty) in which she uses the mode of self-portraiture to speak about the colourism she had experienced.
That work was showcased at the first East Rand Clash of the Mediums group exhibition in 2019.
She has participated in various group exhibitions including two group exhibitions IHIYA and She Bad Ba in 2021 and Working The Land in 2022.
• Refilwe Nkomo is a Johannesburg-based multidisciplinary artist, curator, educator and producer creating cultural and artistic interventions, programs and installations using various mediums including performance, video, text and dance at the intersection of arts and social justice.
Her research and performance have been the recipient of numerous awards and presented in South Africa, South Korea, Ghana, Botswana, Brazil, Germany and the United States of America.
She has founded and co-founded numerous organizations and platforms including We Are Here, a non-profit organization working with men and boys to dismantle gender-based violence. She is a 2019/2020 Clore Chevening Fellow and one of 2020’s M&G 200 Young South Africans.
She was previously the Director of VANSA (Visual Arts Network of South Africa). Her work focuses on memory, the archive, feminism, black performance theory, trauma, affect, and social change.
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