Thabiso Sekgala (1981 – 15 October 2014) was a South African photographer. His work was about "land, peoples’ movement, identity and the notion of home". Sekgala's photography was published in a book, ''Paradise'' (2014) and exhibited posthumously at the

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Roy ...

in London.

Life and work

Sekgala was born in

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

, a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

in the

suburbs of Johannesburg The suburbs of Johannesburg are officially demarcated areas within the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa. As in other Commonwealth countries, the term ''suburb'' refers to a "neighbourhood", although in South Africa as m ...

. He was raised by his grandmother in a settlement near

Hammanskraal Hammanskraal is a functional, trans-provincial region anchored in northern Gauteng Province, South Africa. The region consists of multiple, residential, industrial and commercial areas in a decentralized settlement pattern. History The historica ...

, in what was then the rural

Bantustan A Bantustan (also known as Bantu homeland, black homeland, black state or simply homeland; ) was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (now N ...

(or "homeland") of

KwaNdebele KwaNdebele was a bantustan in South Africa, intended by the apartheid government as a semi-independent homeland for the Ndebele people. The homeland was created when the South African government purchased nineteen white-owned farms and install ...

, 40 km north of the city of

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

. He studied photography at Market Photo Workshop in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

from 2007 to 2008. His photographs were, in the words of Hannah Abel-Hirsch writing in the ''

British Journal of Photography The ''British Journal of Photography'' (BJP) is a magazine about photography, published by 1854 Media. It includes in-depth articles, profiles of photographers, analyses, and technological reviews. History The magazine was established in Liverpo ...

,'' "united by their exploration of the notion of home, and the social, political, or economic conditions that may shape our relationship to it." In 2012 Sekgala and Philippe Chancel "travelled to Magopa to investigate the problem of contemporary restitution of land in the so-called Black Spots, from which black South Africans were expelled under the apartheid-era “forced removals” programme". In 2013 he lived in

Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in 1990 it ha ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

for a year-long residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien and undertook a two month residency at HIWAR/Durant Al Funun in

Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

. He committed suicide on 15 October 2014, aged 33, a few months after the death of his grandmother. He had a son and a daughter.

Publications

Publications by Sekgala

*''Paradise.'' Dortmund: Kettler, 2014. Edited by Nicola Müllerschön and Christoph Tannert. . With essays by

Simon Njami Simon Njami (born 1962 in Lausanne) is a writer and an independent curator, lecturer, art critic and essayist. He published his first novel "Cercueil et Cie" in 1985, followed by "Les Enfants de la Cité" in 1987, and "Les Clandestins" and "Afri ...

and Matthew Alexander Post (Post Brothers). Catalogue published on the occasion of an exhibition at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin.

Publications with contributions by Sekgala

*''Shoe Shop.'' Johannesburg: Jacana, 2012. Edited by Marie-Hélène Gutberlet and Cara Snyman. . Includes "Where is home?" by Sekgala. *''Peregrinate: Field notes on time travel and space.'' South Africa:

Goethe-Institut The Goethe-Institut (, GI, en, Goethe Institute) is a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and ...

, 2013. By Sekgala, Mimi Cherono Ng'ok, and Musa N. Nxumalo. *''Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art.'' Göttingen:

Steidl Steidl is a German-language publisher, an international publisher of photobooks, and a printing company, based in Göttingen, Germany. It was started in 1968 by Gerhard Steidl and is still run by him. Overview The company was started by Gerha ...

, 2017. . With an essay by Daniela Baumann. Published on the occasion of an exhibition at

The Walther Collection The Walther Collection is a private non-profit organization dedicated to researching, collecting, exhibiting, and publishing modern and contemporary photography and video art. The collection has two exhibition spaces: the Walther Collection in N ...

, Neu-Ulm, Germany, 2017.

Solo exhibitions

*''Homeland,'' Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg, 2011 *''Here is Elsewhere,''

, London, 2019. Photographs from the series ''Homeland'' (2009–2011), ''Domestic'' (2012), ''Second Transition'' (2012), ''Running, Amman'' (2013) and ''Paradise'' (2013)

Awards

*2010: Tierney Fellowship, New York City

References

External links

*
"Life after apartheid: images from the new South Africa"
a gallery of photographs at ''The Guardian''
"John Fleetwood on the work of Thabiso Sekgala"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sekgala, Thabiso Suicides by hanging in South Africa South African photographers People from Gauteng People from Soweto Date of birth missing 1981 births 2014 deaths 2014 suicides