South African artist, Lebohang Kganye has won the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize for her captivating exhibition, “Haufi nyana? I’ve come to take you home.”
Kganye was awarded the £30,000 prize at a ceremony at The Photographers’ Gallery in London. The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize is a significant accolade in contemporary photography, celebrating artists and also their exceptional contributions over the past year. This year’s award highlights the profound impact of Kganye’s work on the global photography scene.
Hailing from Johannesburg, Kganye explores themes of home, belonging, heritage, and identity in her art. Growing up in post-apartheid South Africa, she looks at the lingering effects of apartheid and colonialism through shared oral histories and fictional narratives. Her exhibition features silhouettes and also life-sized cut-out figures of her family, created from images found in photo albums, reflecting on her family’s forced migration due to apartheid laws and land acts.
Clare Grafik, the acting director of The Photographers’ Gallery and chair of the jury, praised Kganye’s innovative approach. “Her use of photography merges the past and present, weaving political narratives with deeply personal family stories. Her work is sometimes theatrical, always experimental, and undeniably powerful.”
Kganye’s exhibition is currently on display at The Photographers’ Gallery alongside works by other shortlisted artists Valie Export, Gauri Gill & Rajesh Vangad, and also Hrair Sarkissian until June 2, 2024. The shortlisted projects address pressing global issues, including the remnants of war, diasporic experiences, decolonization, contested land, heritage, equality, and gender. These artists showcase photography’s unique ability to further highlight the invisible, forgotten, or marginalized, offering paths toward redress.
Following its run in London, the exhibition will move to the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation in Eschborn/Frankfurt from June 13 to September 22, 2024.
Lebohang Kganye’s photographic projects bridge personal and collective histories. Drawing from shared oral narratives and fictional texts, she explores South Africa’s layered history before, during, and after apartheid and colonialism. Her experimental installations further create a space that resides between memory and fantasy, combining family stories with excerpts from South African literature, which she rewrites into theatrical scripts. Silhouettes, cut-outs, puppets, shadows, and ghosts, fashioned from material found in photo albums as well as her own compositions, bring these scripts to life.
The exhibition also features four projects using a complex array of media: photographic montages in “Ke Lefa Laka: Her-Story” (2013), spatial installation in “Mohlokomedi wa Tora” (2018), film animation in “Shadows of Re-Memory” (2021), and patchwork in “Mosebetsi wa Dirithi” (2022). The title, “Haufi nyana?” meaning “too close?” in Sesotho, reflects the dialogue between the viewer and the artist, touching on notions of home, heritage, and identity, as well as physical and mental spaces. Kganye’s skilful blending of images and words allows her to navigate the complexity of the South African experience, opening new ways of understanding and contributing to the process of decolonization.
The esteemed jury for this year’s prize includes Rahaab Allana, Curator/Publisher at Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, New Delhi; Quentin Bajac, Director of the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris; Anne-Marie Beckmann, Director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Frankfurt/Main; Laura El-Tantawy, documentary photographer; as well as Shoair Mavlian, Director of The Photographers’ Gallery, London.
The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, a non-profit organization, focuses on collecting, exhibiting, and promoting photographic art. Its renowned Art Collection comprises over 2,300 works by around 160 artists from 35 nations, solidifying its international acclaim in the contemporary photography world.
