Directors

Founder

Julie Bonzon is a photography curator with a PhD in History of Art, specializing in South African photography. With extensive experience in curatorial projects, artistic direction, education and writing, she has collaborated with renowned cultural institutions worldwide, notably with Magnum Photos, Messums London, the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage and the Sharjah Architecture Triennial. She has written for numerous publications including The Eye of Photography Magazine, Safundi, Nataal, and Telling Time, the catalogue of the 10th Bamako Biennale. Her academic research was published in a book by Routledge in 2023. She founded The Photographic Collective in 2020. Julie is currently based in Zurich.

Co-Directors

Léonard Pongo (b. 1988) is a visual artist and filmmaker based between the DRC and Belgium. He is renowned for his mixed-media installations that integrate photography, printing techniques, and moving images. Inspired by Congolese culture, Pongo aims to reshape perceptions of Africa. He co-directs The Photographic Collective and mentors at MINO Lab alongside Otobong Nkanga. In 2023, he was a Blackrock Senegal resident and is currently an associate researcher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. His monograph, The Uncanny, was published by Gostbooks in August 2023. Pongo’s recent projects include ‘Primordial Earth’ and the upcoming film ‘Tales from the Source’, which will premiere in Goma in June 2024.

Francis Nii Obodai Provençal is based in Accra, Ghana, and Maputo, Mozambique. He works with photography, audio, and text, focusing on using photography to record and celebrate the unseen and everyday aspects of life in Africa. His profound interest in how the past is remembered is partly influenced by aphantasia, a condition that prevents him from forming mental images.

In 1998, he co-founded Nuku Café in Accra, which later evolved into Nuku Studio and eventually the Nuku Photo Festival, Ghana’s first photography festival. Nii Obodai’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Addis Ababa Festival, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Bamako Encounters.

Members

Eva Diallo is a Swiss-Senegalese photographer. She graduated in 2018 from the Applied Arts of Vevey (training in photography). She currently resides in St-Louis, Senegal where she divides her time between the production of her personal projects and journalistic mandates. Her work is oriented on topical issues and family narratives, more particularly on migration from Africa to Europe.

Pippa Hetherington (South Africa) is a visual artist specializing in lens-based and documentary work. Her practice explores themes of post-colonial identity, fragmented histories, trauma, and memory using photography, textiles, and rock pigment. She delves into stories of loss and remembrance, uncovering often-buried aspects of history. Hetherington earned a Master of Fine Arts with distinction from ICP-Bard, New York, in 2019, and was shortlisted for the Contemporary African Photography Prize in 2021 and 2022. She has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally, with her work held in collections in South Africa and beyond.

Godelive Kasangati Kabena is a Congolese artist based between Kinshasa and Kumasi, where she studies at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Her work blends speculative research with themes of the body, post-humanism, and reproduction. Notable projects include the performance art piece "Made," which explores the political statuses of bodies and their emancipation. Inspired by Basenji dog archive photos, Kabena rethinks image reproduction and its historical contexts, connecting it to the DRC's colonial past. Her work has been featured in exhibitions such as Silent Invasions (2023), 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair (2023), and Bamako Encounters (2019)

Ange-Frédéric Koffi was born in Korhogo, in the north of the Ivory Coast. He explores the complex articulations of movement, travel and wandering within the history and practice of photography. He applies contemporary postcolonial reflections through various forms and devices in the public sphere to generate a social impact. His work freely crosses disciplines as diverse as political history, exhibition history, anthropology and design. A graduate of the Sorbonne, the Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin (HEAR) and the Ecole Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne (ECAL), Ange-Frédéric was recently for the FOAM 2022 awards (Amsterdam) and completed a residency at Zeitz Mocaa (Cape Town).

Amilton Neves Cuna is a photographer based in Maputo, Mozambique, and Tampa, Florida. He explores societal issues through storytelling and documentary techniques. Cuna has trained at the Sooke Photography School in Canada, Nuku Studio in Ghana, and the International Urban Photography Summer School at Goldsmiths University in London. His work has been featured at the Franco Moçambicano Cultural Center in Maputo, and in galleries across Ghana, Portugal, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Canada. His collection Madrinhas de Guerra was shortlisted for the International Contemporary African Photography Award (2018) and won the Palm Springs Photo Festival Portfolio Prize (2018).

Nonzuzo Gxekwa is a self-taught photographer from Ladysmith, KwaZulu Natal. Her approach to photography favours the everyday over the spectacular; sharing interesting and intimate moments through focusing the camera on what is around her as well as herself. Whether it is through street photography or the studio, her work explores the human condition in subtle and beautiful ways. Collaboration is a crucial part of her practice, she has worked together with a number of photographers and artists in Johannesburg.

Amina Kadous, based in Cairo, Egypt, holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts from Tufts University and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her work, recognized internationally, includes exhibitions at the Photography Biennale of the Contemporary Arab World in Paris and the 12th Bamako Biennale, where she won the Centre Soleil d’Afrique Prize. Her series “White Gold” received the Contemporary African Photography Prize and Prix De La Photo Madame Figaro in 2022 and was nominated for the Prix Pictet and Deutsche Börse Prize in 2023. Kadous also received grants from the Magnum Foundation and Prince Claus Foundation and the Sheikh Saoud Al Thani Award in 2023

Matt Kay is a Durban-based South African photographer. In 2014, he received the Tierney Fellowship and was mentored by David Goldblatt at The Market Photo Workshop. That year, he was awarded the Ithuba Arts Fund and exhibited in Joburg Photo Umbrella and ‘Photography and National Trauma in South Africa’ at GUS Gallery. His series ‘The Front’ was shown at The Photo Workshop Gallery and KZNSA in 2015. Featured by the British Journal of Photography as a top emerging talent, his work has appeared in international festivals, including Biel/Bienne (Switzerland) and Printemps Photographique (France).

Alida Rodrigues is an Angolan visual artist with a strong presence in exhibitions across Africa, Europe, and the UK, and artist residencies in Mexico, the UK, and the USA. She creates installations, textiles, and collages, often incorporating 19th-century black-and-white portraits and botanical illustrations. Her work delves into identity, race, colonialism, and memory, with a focus on ethnobotany and the role of women in plant exploration. Rodrigues explores plant nomenclature and connects spirituality with the earth. In 2019, she appeared in the film Relic 3 by Larry Achiampong and won the Karl Lagerfeld Prize in 2022 with Winnie New York. She currently lives in London.

Michelle Loukidis received her photographic training at TUT in Tshwane. She has trained and mentored young photographers for over 15 years at the Market Photo Workshop and run workshops in Sudan, Kinshasa and Cape Verde. Loukidis is the co-founder of Through the Lens Collective, a collaborative educational and developmental photographic space created by South African visual artists and educators. A fine artist herself, Loukidis has exhibited her photographs in solo and group exhibitions. She is based in Johannesburg.

Maheder Haileselassie Tadese is an Ethiopian photographer and visual artist based in Addis Ababa. Her project “Between Yesterday and Tomorrow’ won the CAP Prize 2023 and was shortlisted for the Grand Prix Images Vevey 2023/24 and the PHmuseum Grant. Her work has been shown at Photo London 2024 and she has participated in the World Press Photo Masterclass and The New York Times Portfolio Review. Maheder has collaborated with institutions such as the Frobenius Institute, the University of Cambridge, and the Goethe-Institut, exploring the intersections of photography, history, anthropology, and architecture.

Born in South Africa with Congolese ancestry, Lorraine Kalassa examines notions of home and identity through her family photo archive and her mother's memories. Her work involves revisiting ancestral archives as a form of pilgrimage, using various media to reflect on identity, landscape, and policies. Kalassa holds a Fine Arts degree from the Michaelis School of Fine Arts and an Honours degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Cape Town.

Ala Kheir was in born in Nyala, Sudan. He started practicing photography as a hobby while he was finishing a degree in mechanical engineering in 2005. In 2009, Kheir co-funded the Sudanese Photographers group with the aim to develop and promote photography in Sudan. His work has been exhibited internationally, notably in the Dakar Biennale, The Addis Foto Fest and the Venice Biennale. Kheir now runs ToV (the other vision), an initiative focused on photography education in Sudan.

Tshepiso Moropa is a Johannesburg-based collage artist with a background in Psychology, Linguistics, and Research. Her work intricately weaves archival imagery and materials to explore the experiences of Black people, the African diaspora, and historical narratives. Moropa's collages breathe new life into forgotten stories, creating powerful visual dialogues that connect the past and present. She has exhibited widely, including a solo exhibition at Eclectica Contemporary gallery in Cape Town, and her work has been featured in publications like 1854.Photography and The Mail & Guardian. Moropa is also the recipient of the 2024 CAP Prize Award.