Tshepiso Mazibuko, a former student of the social and artistic mentorship programme Of Soul and Joy, has been announced as one of the nominees for the esteemed Discovery Award at the upcoming Rencontres d’Arles summer photography festival in France.
The festival, known as one of Europe’s premier photography events, will take place from July 1 to September 29. The winner of the Discovery Award, which first launched in 2021, will receive €15 000.
Mazibuko has been selected from a pool of 300 applicants, and her work will be exhibited alongside other selected projects during the festival.
Her project, Ho tshepa ntshepedi ya bontshepe, considers how the political designation of ‘born-free’ has affected the post-1994 generation of South Africa’s black youth.
Derived from the Sesotho proverb meaning “to expect something that will never happen”, the work considers the paradoxical nature of this title and how, due to the structural remnants of apartheid, this freedom has…
