Johannesburg, South Africa – Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo, an acclaimed photographer based in Lawley, Johannesburg, will be showcasing his award-winning Slaghuis I and II photo series at the 2023 RMB Latitudes Art Fair from 26 – 28 May, where he’ll be joined by artists and exhibitors from across the continent.
Winner of the 2019 CAP Prize for Contemporary African Photography in Basel, Switzerland, Hlatshwayo’s work investigates themes of first-hand and generational trauma, violence and memory. Using the tavern run by his parents as a studio, he transforms the space of trauma into a place of refuge and healing. In 2020, Hlatshwayo was named the overall winner of the international ‘Blurring the Lines’ photo award.
“Growing up in a home with a tavern, I have been confronted with realities that made me want to escape the space. A place of refuge or safe haven should have been my home, but it couldn’t be because it was the extension of the tavern,” says Hlatshwayo. “[In Slaghuis] I confront the unresolved issues I have with the tavern. I confront my violated or perhaps traumatised mind. I confront the memory.”
Hlatshwayo joined the Of Soul and Joy Photography initiative in 2016 where he was mentored by Jabulani Dhlamini. In 2018, he completed a year course in the Advance Programme in Photography at the Market Photo Workshop, receiving mentorship by photography curator and educator John Fleetwood.
Hlatshwayo has presented work in group exhibitions at Fotomuseum Winterthur, IAF Basel Festival, and Johannesburg’s Turbine Art Fair. His work appeared at the Addis Foto Fest in December 2021, and he received the Gisèle Wulfsohn Mentorship in Photography Recipient for 2019. In 2020, he held his first solo exhibition, Slaghuis II, at the Market Photo Workshop.
“It has been an honour to watch Thembinkosi grow as a photographer and artist,” says Dhlamini. “His participation at the RMB Latitudes Art Fair will give local audiences a chance to experience his powerful and deeply moving work that’s been so well received overseas.”
Hlatshwayo is represented by Photo:, Johannesburg.
More about Of Soul and Joy
Of Soul and Joy is a lasting social and artistic initiative undertaken in 2012 by Rubis Mécénat and Easigas (Rubis Group’s South African subsidiary) in Thokoza, a township in the southeast of Johannesburg in South Africa in the East Rand. Its goal is to develop artistic skills in the field of photography amongst the township’s vulnerable youth by providing an understanding of photography as a means of expression, in order to open up new personal and professional horizons. Weekly workshops are led by renowned photographers. It also fosters encounters with art professionals and the opportunity to participate in art related events both in Africa and abroad.
Each year the most promising students are awarded a scholarship to pursue their studies in photography in a university of their choice, such as the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg.
The project is led by Jabulani Dhlamini, South-African photographer represented by the Goodman Gallery and Of Soul and Joy Project Manager since 2015.
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