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# Photography's Role in Shaping South Africa's History and Contemporary Culture
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/photography-in-south-africa-open-society-foundation-ny/
- Published: 2018-04-18T11:03:35.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:39:24.000Z
- Description: The head of Johannesburg's Market Photo Workshop and an artist who studied there discuss the medium's impact on how South Africans remember their pasts and picture their futures.
- Author: Benjamin Sutton
- Tags: Art, Events, Lebohang Kganye, Open Society Foundations, Photography, South Africa, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-18 14:37 (2018)

![Lebohang Kganye, "Ka phisi yaka e pinky II" (2013), inkjet print on cotton rag paper, 42 x 42 cm (© Lebohang Kganye, courtesy Afronova Gallery)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2018/04/lebohang-kganye-open-society-3.jpg)

Lebohang Kganye, “Ka phisi yaka e pinky II” (2013), inkjet print on cotton rag paper, 42 x 42 cm (© Lebohang Kganye, courtesy Afronova Gallery)

What is photography’s role in shaping a modern nation’s image of itself? How can the camera be a tool for not only making new images? And how can sophisticated visual literacy help remedy historical inequalities in eduction and access? These are some of the questions that Johannesburg’s [Market Photo Workshop](http://marketphotoworkshop.co.za/?ref=hyperallergic.com) (MPW) has wrestled with since it was founded by the South African photographer [David Goldblatt](https://hyperallergic.com/169427/photographing-the-crossroads-of-life-and-death-in-south-africa/) in 1989\. They will also be taken up on Thursday night at the Open Society Foundation’s New York space, during [a conversation](https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/events/images-and-democracy-photography-and-shaping-contemporary-south-african-culture?ref=hyperallergic.com) between the current head of MPW, Lekgetho Makola, alumnus and artist [Lebohang Kganye](https://www.lebohangkganye.co.za/?ref=hyperallergic.com), and Sean Jacobs, the founder and editor of the blog [Africa is a Country](https://africasacountry.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com).

![Lebohang Kganye, "Ka mose wa malomo kwana 44 II" (2013), inkjet print on cotton rag paper, 42 x 29.7 cm (© Lebohang Kganye, courtesy Afronova Gallery)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2018/04/lebohang-kganye-open-society-2.jpg)

Lebohang Kganye, “Ka mose wa malomo kwana 44 II” (2013), inkjet print on cotton rag paper, 42 x 29.7 cm (© Lebohang Kganye, courtesy Afronova Gallery)

Kganye’s own work (which will also be showcased at next month’s [1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair](http://1-54.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) in Brooklyn) plays on issues of memory, often transforming photographs to create highly stylized, subjective images and evocative installations, or incorporating elements of performance. One particularly powerful series, [*Ke Lefa Laka*](https://www.lebohangkganye.co.za/ke-lefa-laka-herstory-2013-all/?ref=hyperallergic.com) (“Her Story”), features old photos of the artist’s mother onto which she has superimposed contemporary images of herself in similar outfits, poses, and settings. In these juxtapositions, the artist resembles a ghostly double of her own mother, suggesting how much and how little has changed in their respective lifetimes.

**When:** Thursday, April 19, 6–8pm  
**Where:** [Open Society Foundation New York](https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/about/offices-foundations/open-society-foundations-new-york?ref=hyperallergic.com) (224 West 57th Street, Midtown, Manhattan)

*More info at* [*Open Society*](https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/events/images-and-democracy-photography-and-shaping-contemporary-south-african-culture?ref=hyperallergic.com)*.*