In 2010, I shared a stage with the late, multi-award-winning photographer Santu Mofokeng and Chris Ledochowski after we were recognised for our photographic work at the Bonani Africa Photographic Festival Conference in Cape Town, hosted by South African History Online and led by renowned documentary photographer Omar Badsha.
The soft-spoken Santu was unassuming, but the man was a genius. His project Let’s Talk, which explored climate change, was evidence of his wide-ranging knowledge and curiosity. The powerful black-and-white landscape images were beautifully composed but went beyond their aesthetics. They were political, accompanied by disconcerting captions that challenged viewers to think.
I first encountered Santu as a student at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg, where he taught in the early 2000s and would sometimes critique our work. His observations were gentle, unaggressive, and never condescending, yet always informative without imposing his views on us. His photographs, like his teaching, were acts of listening, patience, and witness. They revealed not only what was visible, but what lay beneath the surface: memory, dignity, faith, injustice, and belonging.
His photographs, like his teaching, were acts of listening, patience, and witness.” – Oupa Nkosi
Santu’s unorthodox journey as a photographer, curator, writer, and researcher was extraordinary. He shunned photojournalism during the height of the anti-apartheid struggle, when demand from mainstream media was at its peak, choosing instead to explore stories that were overlooked. He became frustrated by the way black people were presented in the international picture economy and sought to challenge those representations through his own work.
Born in 1956, Santu came of age under apartheid, when black South Africans were restricted by pass laws and denied freedom of movement. In 1991, he became the recipient of the Ernest Cole Fellowship at the International Centre of Photography in New York. The six-month fellowship broadened his understanding of photography and changed his life entirely.
For Santu, photography was never simply about documenting what was in front of the camera. The history of the medium is deeply linked to the colonial project, with photographs used to feed into the racial discourse of European superiority. His work challenged that legacy, insisting on a more complex and human visual record of South Africa and the continent.
A New Legacy
Sharing a stage with Santu in 2010 was something I never anticipated during my years of training or subsequent work in photojournalism, a field that is both competitive and expensive. Photography allowed me to travel and exposed me to both my country and the wider world. It also taught me to adapt to change and develop a keen eye for detail, composition, and emotion – skills that continue to shape my work today.
The same opportunity to develop a distinctive voice is at the heart of a new initiative from the Santu Mofokeng Foundation. The Foundation has launched a photography prize to support emerging photographers through the Latitudes Centre for the Arts in Johannesburg. The award aims to unearth photographers who bring the same curiosity, integrity, and generosity to their practice that Santu was known for.
The inaugural R100 000 award includes editorial and promotional exposure through the Latitudes platform. “Santu’s work was poetry. So that’s the kind of candidate we’re looking for. Someone who has a voice that’s their own,” says Lunetta Bartz of the Santu Mofokeng Foundation.
“Santu’s work was poetry. So that’s the kind of candidate we’re looking for. Someone who has a voice that’s their own.” – Lunetta Bartz
The prize comes at a time when the visual landscape is changing rapidly. The immediacy of social media and widespread access to smartphones have opened space for a far more diverse range of narratives, but they have also brought new responsibilities. Photographers and audiences alike must navigate misinformation, fake news, and AI-manipulated images masquerading as reality.
Rumours/2026
Santu’s wish before his passing in 2020, at age 63, was for his work to continue to be seen and shown, and to motivate and encourage visual storytellers. As part of the Foundation’s 10th anniversary celebrations, Rumours/2026 is currently on display at the Standard Bank Art Lab in Sandton.
The exhibition brings together three bodies of work drawn from Santu’s extended engagement with Bloemhofand its surrounding communities, photographed between1988 and 1994. The Concert of Sewefontein traces a moment of collective release photographed at night during a gathering of farm workers and tenant labourers. The Black Photo Album / Look at Me: 1890–1950 comprises studio portraits collected by Santu from private homes of clients he was commissioned to photograph.
Elegantly conceptualised and curated by Dr Same Mdlhuli and Lunetta Bartz, the exhibition also features Santu’s writing, sharing intimate details of his childhood memories, family, love, loss, fear, hardship, humour, and career. The words sit alongside the photographs, creating a layered portrait of the man behind the lens and allowing visitors to encounter his work through both imagery and memory.
Santu is celebrated for the outstanding quality and depth of his work, and for his contribution to photography in Africa. His photographs have been featured in numerous monographs, volumes, and anthologies, including his extensive 18-volume box collection, released in 2019, which encapsulates his life’s work.
Six years after his death, Santu’s photographs continue to ask difficult questions about who gets seen, how stories are told, and what images leave behind. Through the Foundation’s new prize and the continued presentation of his work, his legacy is not simply being preserved; it is giving a new generation the opportunity to look, question, and tell their own stories.
The Details
- Santu Mofokeng Foundation Photography Prize
- Applications is open until 15 October 2026
- Rumours/2026
- Standard Bank Art Lab, Sandton, Johannesburg
- On until 18 October 2026.
IMAGES: ©SANTU MOFOKENG FOUNDATION COURTESY OF LUNETTA BARTZ; STEVE TANCHEL
