Lindokuhle Sobekwa snaps coveted FNB Art prize

The country’s biggest art jamboree, FNB Art Joburg, is around the corner, and this week saw its first big announcement ahead of the fair itself in early September: the awarding of the prestigious 2023 FNB Art Prize to fine art documentary photographer Lindokuhle Sobekwa.

Sobekwa is the first artist in 16 years of the fair to work solely in the photographic medium. He comes from a strong tradition of social documentary photographers who document from a visual art point of view, rather than explicitly photojournalistic material. His illustrious predecessors include the likes of Ernest Cole, Santu Mofokeng and David Goldblatt. Sobekwa’s practice reflects poetically on domestic realities for his family and wider community, introducing material and political presence in a subtle and nuanced way.

Of their decision, the jury for the awarding of the FNB Art Prize said, “Creating compelling documentary photography, Lindokule Sobekwa’s work represents an explicitly South African narrative. He brings into focus a poignant reality in which both strife and soft moments exist — exposing, questioning and reflecting on current times and experiences.”

Sobekwa joins an illustrious list of previous winners, including Dada Khanyisa, Wycliffe Mundopa, Lady Skollie and Bronwyn Katz.

Hailing from Katlehong, Johannesburg, Sobekwa is from a generation of South African photographers born after the first democratic elections of 1994. Says FNB Art Joburg’s managing director, Mandla Sibeko: “Lindokuhle’s work with the camera has managed to continue the reflective, conscious and delicate legacies left behind by the likes of Ernest Cole.”

It is a lineage Sobekwa himself honours, recalling the first time he encountered Ernest Cole’s work at the age of 17. “House of Bondage became a great reference in terms of what I was pursuing in my language as a photographer,” he says.

In 2014, his photo essay, Nyaope, was published in several prolific platforms including the Mail & Guardian, Vice magazine’s annual Photo Issue and in the Belgian publication, De Standaard. Thereafter he received a scholarship to study at the Market Photo Workshop, where he refined his approach to the camera in both concept and technique. Since then, Sobekwa’s success has included being selected by the Magnum Foundation for its Photography and Social Justice Programme in New York to develop his project, I carry Her photo with Me. Two years later, the hand-made photo book of the project was included in the African Cosmologies exhibition at the FotoFest Biennial in Houston, Texas.

In recent years, his career has steadily taken off. In 2023, Sobekwa’s work was included in the group show Against the Grain at Goodman Gallery Johannesburg, where his work was presented alongside that of his hero, Ernest Cole, as well as David Goldblatt, Ruth Motau and US photographer Ming Smith. In 2021, Sobekwa completed a residency at A4 Arts Foundation in Cape Town, culminating in a two-person exhibition with Mikhael Subotzky titled Tell It to the Mountains.

As the winner of the 2023 prize, Sobekwa will receive a cash prize as well as a solo exhibition at Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), where the largest art collection on the continent resides.

Tickets to the fair, on from 8-10 September at The Sandton Convention Centre, are now available at artjoburg.com.