TAXI-004: Santu Mofokeng

Description

Santu Mofokeng was born in 1956 in Johannesburg. He began his photographic career informally as a street photographer in Soweto, and in the early 1980s set out to pursue photography in earnest, mostly through documentary coverage of political activity at the time. Having won several awards, and staged numerous exhibitions in the interim, Mofokeng has become one of South Africa’s foremost photographers – one whose work re-situates the role of the medium in the country’s history.

Engaging subjects as visually diverse as religious ritual, black middle-class identities, and the signifying potential of landscape, he upsets the comfort zones of racial and cultural memory, always foregrounding the ideological role of representation. Based in Johannesburg, Mofokeng works as a freelance curator, writer, researcher and photographer.

For this book Mofokeng has made a selection of 76 of his extraordinary images to complement his autobiographical writings, which make up the majority of the text, with additional pieces by Sam Raditlhalo.

TAXI is a series of titles on contemporary South African artists, initiated in 1999 by the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) and published by David Krut Publishing. The series aims to extend the profile of South African artists both locally and abroad, and in collaboration with the MTN Art institute, to develop an active educational programme and teaching resource archive.

OUT OF PRINT