Lindokuhle Sobekwa on exhibition at Huis Marseiles, Amsterdam

Earlier this year I was visiting Amsterdam and walked into a beautiful photography gallery, Huis Marseiles, Museum for Photography.  A beautiful old house converted into a spacious well lit gallery.

I just knew I wanted to visit this particular gallery but I had no idea what was on show. To my absolute surprise, South African photographer Lindokuhle Sobekwa was the main event.  With pride and admiration I walked through a beautifully curated exhibition of old and recent bodies of work. 

I was particularly touched and intrigued by one of his recent series I carry her photo with me, a scrapbook story of Sobekwa’s mourning of his sister Ziyanda’s disappearance. She passed away after becoming estranged from her family.  He began the project after finding the only picture of her, a family portrait with her face cut out.  This series was displayed in a slideshow in a dark room which made this sensitive series of looking for answers even more poignant.

 Another favourite of mine was upstairs, the series Daleside. Here Sobekwa captures the predominantly white community living in this small industrial town on the outskirts of Johannesburg.  He spent 5 years exploring this personal story of fascination and frustration with the place his mother worked as a domestic worker.  He wanted to understand Daleside himself and in turn also explored the deep-rooted racial divide in South Africa.  The distance can be felt in every stare in every portrait which illustrate the complexity of Sobekwa’s relationship with this area.

Lindokuhle Sobekwa was born in Katlehong, Johannesberg in 1995.  He was introduced to photography in 2012 through an educational programme, Of Soul and Joy Project that ran in the township, Thokoza.  He started his career by photographing birthday parties and weddings and later realized that photography as a medium could be a very important tool to tell stories that concern and interest him.

“My education in photography was not only based in school, where they teach you, but also in the people I photograph.”

- Lindokuhle Sobekwa

Sobekwa joined Live Magazine as part-time photographer in 2013.  He’s early projects dealt with poverty and unemployment in the townships of South Africa as well as the growing nyaope drug crises with them.  In 2014 his first break out photo series Nyaope was published in the Mail and Guardian and his work feature in Vice Magazine as well as the De Standaard.

 Sobekwa became a Magnum Nominee in 2018 and a Member in 2022.  He participates in a variety of photographic activities including assignments to Kenya and South Africa as well as lectures on his work and photography in South Africa in Europe and America.

The exhibition closes in 4 days and in my opinion a must see.  What a treat to be spoiled with the best of local, just shows that South Africa has world class artists!