democrasee 3: Mauro Vombe
Announcing the Recipient of democraSEE 3
Mauro Vombe
Vombe is the recipient of the democraSEE 3 award. With the R40,000 grant, he will work in collaboration with a mentor/curator of choice, to produce a body of work over the next year. Further, he will be supported through critique sessions with various appointed subject and practice experts, as well as support from Photo:. On completion, the work will be published on www.democraSEE.photography
Mauro Vombe, born (1988) and based in Maputo, Mozambique, started photographing in 2006. His work connects to his earlier experience in theatre, unveiling hidden feelings and creating a form of collective or individual representation, and finds resonance from his work as news and events reporter. Vombe has received numerous awards locally and internationally. He participated in an exhibition dedicated to the 40 years of Mozambican photojournalism at Foundation Fernado Leite Couto in 2015. In 2017 he was an invited participant in the ‘Catchupa Factory’, in Mindelo, Cape Verde. In 2018 he was shortlisted for the democraSEE 2 award.
Vombe was announced the recipient of the award at the Catchupa Factory in Mindelo, Cabo Verde on 4 Jul 2018. The shortlist included Alexia Webster (South Africa) and Xoliswa Ngwenya (South Africa).
Notes from the selection panel:
Mfundi Vundla:
Good visual sense, looking at what people do every day to survive. There is a story behind every individual – all trying to create a better life for themselves – this struggle for survival.
Berry Bickle:
Extra-ordinary work. The images are a contemporary visual statement, and carry contentious issues of the urban. So many issues are compacted into these images. What he finally is talking about is very humane. It touches on the urban in general. Even though these are images from Maputo, it speaks to most African cities. What is special is that Vombe is from a new generation with a new vision.
John Fleetwood:
The work is really arresting as a cohesive artistic work and as a social document. It feels very universal on one level and on another, it is very specific to the place - as if a metaphor. Think there are great possibilities to develop it from here, in positioning self. Proposal is underdeveloped. Compelling images in their flatness and reduction.
Announcing the democraSEE 3 Shortlist
Photo: is proud to announce the shortlisted candidates for democraSEE 3
Alexia Webster
Mauro Vombe
Xoliswa Ngwenya
Alexia Webster
Alexia Webster
is a South African photographer. Her work explores intimacy, family and identity across the African continent and beyond. She was awarded the Artraker Award for Art in Conflict, the CAP Prize award for Contemporary African Photography, and she received the Frank Arisman Scholarship at the International Centre of Photography in New York City. Her work has been exhibited in South Africa, United States, Europe and India. Most recently she traveled to Juba, South Sudan and Tijuana, Mexico as part of an International Media Foundation fellowship.
Mauro Vombe
Mauro Vombe
born (1988) and based in Maputo, Mozambique, started photographing in 2006. His work connects to his earlier experience in theatre, unveiling hidden feelings and creating a form of collective or individual representation, and finds resonance from his work as news and events reporter. Vombe has received numerous awards locally and internationally. He participated in an exhibition dedicated to the 40 years of Mozambican photojournalism at Foundation Fernado Leite Couto in 2015. In 2017 he was an invited participant in the ‘Catchupa Factory’, in Mindelo, Cape Verde. In 2018 he was shortlisted for the democraSEE 2 award.
Xoliswa Ngwenya
Xoliswa Ngwenya
is a Photographer, from Johannesburg, South Africa. Born 1990 in Soweto. He is a Market Photo Workshop alumni. He was also a runner up for the Tierney Fellowship in 2015. He is the 2016 , 1stprize recipient of Social Justice Photography Competition through Open Society Foundation for South Africa and was the main exhibitor at Through The Lensexhibition in Cape Town, 2016. He was a featured artist sponsored by Vodacom Business, in the IT Web, Brainstorm Magazine, calendar exhibition, 2017. He is a participant of Talent Unlocked Mentorship through Assemblage, in 2018.
selection panel
The selection panel for democraSEE 3 consists of leading regional and international experts. They are Mfundi Vundla, Lebohang Kganye, Berry Bickle, Euridice Kala and John Fleetwood.
Mfundi Vundla is a South African writer/producer and Executive Chair of the television and film production house, Morula Pictures. His production credits include television shows, motion pictures and theatrical plays. He is a past chair of the Independent Producers' Organization and the National Film and Video Foundation, an agency created to ensure the equitable growth of South Africa's film and video industry. Examples of his viable productions include ‘’Generations’(1993), ‘Magic Cellar’(2006) and ‘In My Country’ (2004).
Lebohang Kganye is an artist living and working in Johannesburg. Kganye trained at the Market Photo Workshop. She also completed her Fine Arts studies at the University of Johannesburg in 2016. Although primarily a photographer, Kganye’s photography often incorporates her interest in sculpture and performance. Her work forms part of several private and public collections, most notably the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pennsylvania and the Walther Collection in Ulm.
Berry Bickle works between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Her work ranges between mixed-media, ceramics, installations, texts and videos. She has experience as a scenographer in contemporary dance collaborations and as an artistic director in the Mozambican film industry. She is a founding member of VAAB, the Visual Artists Association of Bulawayo and a principle artist of the Pachipamwe International artists workshop hosted in Zimbabwe between 1988-1993. Her work has been exhibited extensively, amongst others, in Cuba, South Africa, Senegal, USA and Venice.
Zaituna aka Euridice Kala is a Mozambican artist and photographer, currently based in Paris. She is a graduate from the Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg. She is the founder of the entity E.A.ST Ephemeral Archival Station), a laboratory for artistic research practice. She is the recipient of the 2018 Maison des Arts George & Claude Pompidou residency in Cajarc, France.She has exhibited in South Africa, France, Mozambique and Senegal amongst others.
John Fleetwood is a photography curator and educator. He is the director of Photo:, a platform that develops photography projects, mainly working with photographers from the African continent. He has curated numerous exhibitions such as Cities and Memory (2016), Against Time (2015), A Return to Elsewhere (2014), Transition (2013) in Africa and Europe. From 2002 to 2015 he was the Head of the Market Photo Workshop, a photography school, gallery and project space. Fleetwood lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.