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Santu Mofokeng (1956-2020) began taking portraits on the streets of Soweto at the age of seventeen. He became a protégé of the acclaimed South African photographer David Goldblatt and joined the South African Afrapix collective in 1985.
“Afrapix gave me a home. It provided me with money to buy a camera and film in order to document Soweto and the rising discontent in the townships.” – Santu Mofokeng
Mofokeng’s images and texts address subjects like history and land, memory and spirituality. He was an artist who helped shape the path of South African photography. Mofokeng was a documentarian who resisted easy categorization, creating an œuvre that addresses monumental topics while retaining a sense of lightness and poetry.
From 1988 to 1998 Santu Mofokeng worked as a photographer and researcher at the Institute for Advanced Social Research at the University of Witwatersrand. He wrote essays, which he interspersed with the photographic works he published. For his seminal project “Black Photo Album/Look at Me: 1890-1950,” which debuted at the 1997 Johannesburg Biennale, he compiled a slide show of retouched studio portraits of middle-class black South Africans taken between 1890 to 1950.
Santu Mofokeng’s works have been exhibited in international museums such as Jeu de Paume, Paris; Kunsthalle Bern, Bern; Bergen Kunsthal, Norway and The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm furthermore his works are in the collections of renowned museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris and MMK – Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt.
Born 1956 in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa
Died 2020 in Johannesburg, South Africa
Honorary Doctorate, WITS University, Johannesburg, South Africa
International Photography Prize, Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Italy
Prince Claus Lauriat, Netherlands
Ruth First Fellowship, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
DAAD Fellowship, Berlin, Germany
DAAD Fellowship, Worpswede, Germany
Contre Jour Residency, Marseille, France
Künstlerhaus Worpswede Fellowship, Germany
Short-listed for the FNB Vita Award for the Visual Arts, Johannesburg, South Africa
1st Mother Jones Award for Africa, South Africa
Ernest Cole Scholarship, for study at the International Center of Photography, New York City, USA
AA Vita Award Nomination for Like Shifting Sand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Santu Mofokeng: Billboards, Zander Galerie, Cologne, Germany
Santu Mofokeng: Stories. Kunsthaus Göttingen, Germany
Santu Mofokeng and David Goldblatt: Beyond the Binary, The Walther Collection, Neu Ulm, Germany
Santu Mofokeng: Stories, Foam Museum Amsterdam, Netherlands
Santu Mofokeng: Stories. Kliptown Community Centre, Soweto, South Africa
Santu Mofokeng. A Silent Solitude. Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Modena Foro Boario, Italy
Santu Mofokeng: A Metaphorical Biography, The Walther Collection Project Space, New York Chelsea, New York, USA
Chasing Shadows/Santu Mofokeng, thirty years of photographic essays, Bergen Kunsthall, Norway; Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
Chasing Shadows, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France; Extra City Kunsthal, Antwerp, Belgium; Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland; Bergen Kunsthall, Norway
Let’s Talk, Arts on Main, Johannesburg, South Africa
Remaining Past, Minshar Art Institute, Tel Aviv, Israel
Chasing Shadows, Anne Arbor Institute of Humanities, Michigan, USA
Mofokeng survey exhibition, Autograph ABP, London, UK
Santu Mofokeng’s Landscapes, Warren Siebrits, Johannesburg, South Africa
Homeland Security, Johannesburg Art Museum, South Africa
Invoice, Standard Bank Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
Invoice Iziko, South African National Art Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
Rethinking Landscape, Centre photographique d’Ile-de-France (CPIF), Pontault-Combault, France
Santu Mofokeng, Gallery MOMO, Johannesburg, South Africa
Santu Mofokeng, David Krut Projects, New York City, USA
Chasing Shadows, Memling Museum, Bruges, Belgium
Sad Landscapes, Camouflage Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Chasing Shadows, Transparencies International, Berlin, Germany
Black Photo Album/Look at Me, FNAC Montparnasse, France
Lunarscapes, Netherlands Photo Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Chasing Shadows, Netherlands Photo Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Black Photo Album/Look at Me, Netherlands Photo Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Chasing Shadows, Gertrude Posel Gallery, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Distorting Mirror/Townships Imagined, Worker’s Library, Johannesburg, South Africa
Rumours/The Bloemhof Portfolio, Market Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
Like Shifting Sand, Market Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography, Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam, Niederlande
A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography, Tate Modern, London,UK
Santu Mofokeng & David Goldblatt: Beyond The Binary, The Walter Collection, Neu- Ulm, Germany
Trace – Formations of Likeness. Photography and Video from The Walther Collection, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
Hollow Earth: Art, Caves & Subterranean Imaginary, Nottingham Contemporary, UK
Africa. The Ecstatic Religions, Chemins du patrimoine en Finistère, Daoulas, France
The Show is Over, South London Gallery, UK
Handle With Care, Javett-UP Pretoria, South Africa
African Cosmologies: Photography, Time and Other, Fotofest Biennal, Houston, USA
Who is gazing?, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France
Apologia della Storia – The Historian’s Craft, ICA Milano, Milan, Italy
Crossing Night, Idris Niam Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico
Afrique. Les religions de l’extase, Musée d’ethnographie de Genève, Switzerland
Days without a Night, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi, India
The Kochi-Musiris Biennale 2018, Fort Kochi, Kerala, India
Image profile: Aspects of the Documentary in MMK’s Photography Collection MMK, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt – ZOLLAMT, Frankfurt, Germany
Space and Photography, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Mönchsberg Salzburg, Austria
Behold The Man, Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen Magdeburg Magdeburg, Germany
Art/Afrique, le nouvel atelier, Fondation Louis Vuitton Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris, France
The Extended Moment, Carlier | Gebauer, Berlin, Germany
The force of photography. Works from the Museion Collection, Museion, Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Bolzano, Italy
25 years: MMK Museum of Modern Art, MMK, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt, Germany
Festival Internacional de Fotografia, SCAN, Tarragona
Taipei Biennial, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
Home Truths, IZIKO South African National Gallery, South Africa
Dubai Photo 2016 Exhibition, Dubai
South Africa, The British Museum, London, UK
Après Eden: The Walther Collection, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
Álbum de Família, Centro Municipal de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Between States of Emergency, Nelson Mandela Foundation, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Problem of God, K21-Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf, Germany
Looking Back/Looking Forward, FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Spatial Stories: Topographies of Change in Africa, Center for Visual Art, Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA
Après Eden: The Walther Collection, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
Formes Biographiques, Carré d’Art, Musée d’art contemporain de Nîmes, France
INPUT / OUTPUT – Interface Worpswede, Worpswede Museen, Germany
Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA
Apartheid and After, Huis Marseille Museum door Fotografie, Amsterdam, Netherlands
8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
SITE: Photography and National Trauma in South Africa, GUS University Stellenbosch Art Gallery, South Africa
Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, Fowler Museum at UCLA Los Angeles, California, USA
Contemporary Art/South Africa, Yale University Art Gallery New Haven, USA
Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life, International Centre of Photography, New York; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan; Museum Africa, Johannesburg
Biographical Forms – Construction and Individual Mythology, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, Smithsonian, Washington DC, USA
German Pavilion, 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
African Photography from The Walther Collection Distance and Desire: Encounters with the African Archive The Walter Collection, Ulm, Germany
Umhlaba Wethu This is Our Land: 100 year commemoration of the 1913 Land Act, South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History, Centre Pompidou – Cinema 2, Paris, France
African Photography from East, West and South Africa, The National Gallery of Nyanza, Rwanda
My Joburg: Short Change, a photography exhibition of work by students and alumni of the Market Photo Workshop, La Maison Rouge, Paris
Household Narratives. Beyond the Family Album, Diputación de Huesca, Spain
Poetry and Dream Collection Display, Tate Modern, London, UK
Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Events of the Self Portraiture and Social Identity, The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany
(Re)construções: Arte Contemporânea de África do Sul, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói, Brasil
Darkroom: Photography and New Media in South Africa since 1950. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, USA
Animism, Extra City/M HKA, Antwerp; Kunsthalle Bern; Generali Foundation, Vienna, Austria
Apartheid – Widerstand – Freiheit: Südafrikanische Fotografie 1950-2010. Willy-Brandt-Haus, Berlin, Germany
The Symbolic Efficiency of the Frame, T.IC.A.B. – Tirana International Contemporary Art Biannual, Albania
Imaginar_historiar, XVI Jornadas de Estudio de la Imagen, Madrid, Spain
Joburg Art Fair, Warren Siebrits, Johannesburg, South Africa
Urban Reflections, Stills Scotland’s Centre for Photography, Edinburgh, UK
Home Lands – Land Marks: Contemporary Art from South Africa, Haunch of Venison, London, UK
Rationalism of Nationalism, Warren Siebrits, Johannesburg, South Africa
52nd Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Climate Change, Ruth First Fellowship Award Conference, Atlas Studios, Johannesburg, South Africa
Apartheid: The South African Mirror, Centre de Cultura, Contemporania de Barcelona, Spain
Uniform: South Africa’s New Clothes, Spanierman Modern, New York, USA
Reality Check: Zeitgenössische Fotokunst aus Südafrika, Neue Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin; Kunstmuseum Bochum; Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz; Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen, Germany; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Exorcising Exoticism, Contemporary Art Exhibition, Taipei, Taiwan
1st Trienal de Luanda, Angola
Black, Brown+ White, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
Unsettled, Durban Art Callery; Reykjavik Museum of Photography; Kristianstads Konsthall, Sweden; National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen, Denmark
10 Years, 100 Artists: Art in Democratic South Africa, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Post! Contemporary South African Photography, Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Forbidden City International Photography Exhibition, Beijing, China
New Identities: Contemporary Art from South Africa, Museum Bochum, Germany; Johannesburg Art Gallery; Pretoria Art Museum, South Africa
Ralentir vite, le Plateau/Frac Ile-de-France, Paris, France
Photography from South Africa, Christine Koenig Galerie, Vienna, Austria
Afrika Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent, Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf, Germany; Hayward Gallery, London, UK; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
5th Rencontres de la Photographie Africaine, Bamako, Mali
6th Sharjah International Biennal, UAE
documenta 11, Kassel, Germany
25th Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brasil
African Advertising Art, Iwalewa House, University of Bayreuth, Germany
Surviving Apartheid, Maison Europeene de la Photographie, Paris, France
Dislocation: Installations from South Africa, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid; Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain
The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945-1994, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany; Haus der Kulturen der Welt/Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany; MoMA PSI, New York, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, USA
Africas: The Artist and the City, Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona, Spain
Unplugged V, Market Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
Man + Space, Gwanjiu Biennale, South Korea
Translation/Seduction/Displacement, White Box Gallery, New York, USA; Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art, Portland, USA
The Song of the Earth: Biennals in Dialogue, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany
Positions Attitudes Actions, 4th Foto Biennale Rotterdam, Netherlands
L’etat des Choses, Kunst-Werke, Berlin, Germany
Rhizomes of Memory, Henie Onstad Kuntsenter, Oslo, Norway
Africa by Africa: A Photographic View, Barbican Centre, London, UK; Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Identity and Environment, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
A South Photographs collective exhibition, Area Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Blank_Architecture, apartheid and after, Nederlands Architecture Institute Rotterdam, Netherlands
3rd Recontres de la Photographie Africaine, Bamako, Mali
Dreams and Clouds, KultuurHuset, Stockholm, Sweden
Democracy’s Images, Bild Museet, Umea, Sweden
Alternating Currents, 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa
In/Sight: African Photographers, 1940 to the Present, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Images of Africa Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
Standard Bank National Festival of the Art, Grahamstown, South Africa
Colors: Contemporary Art from South Africa, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Transitions: Contemporary Art from South Africa, F-Stop Gallery, Bath, UK
The Third International Photographic Biennale, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Panoramas of Passage, Standard Bank National Festival of the Arts, Grahamstown, South Africa
Les assises de l’Afrique au Siege de l’UNESCO, Paris, France
South African Photography, with Peter Magubane, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen Gallery, Bonn, Germany
1es Recontres de la Photographie Africaine, Bamako, Mali
This Land is our Land, Market Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
Happy Sad Land, Herten Fotofestival – Herten, Germany
In Transit, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA
Montage ’93 – International Festival of the Image, Rochester, New York
FNAC – Mother Jones Award winners 1992 – Light Factory Gallery, North Carolina, USA
AA Vita ‘Art Now’, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
Alltag schwarz-weiss: Fünf Fotografinnen und Fotografen aus Südafrika, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin, Germany
Zabalaza Cultural Festival, London, UK
History Workshop Open Day Festival, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Women’s Exhibition, Malibongwe Women’s Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Going Home, with Paul Weinberg, Canon Image Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Black Sash Human Rights Exhibition, Market Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
Santu Mofokeng. Stories, Steidl, Göttingen, Germany
Santu Mofokeng. Stories: 2-4, Steidl, Göttingen, Germany
Santu Mofokeng. Stories: 1, Steidl, Göttingen, Germany
Graves 2012, MAKER, Johannesburg, South Africa
Santu Mofokeng: The Black Photo Album/Look at me 1890-1950, Steidl, Göttingen, Germany
Chasing Shadows, Santu Mofokeng, Thirty Years of Photographic Essays (monograph), Prestel Verlag, Munich, Germany
Compound to Kraal: Salvaging and Refiguring the Duggan-Cronin Collection, with Thierry Secretan, The Workers’ Library and Museum, Newtown, Johannesburg, South Africa
Fin de Sieclè, (Naivety in SA documentary Photography – Andrew Tshabangu and Lien Botha.) Nantes Festival, France
2nd Recontre de la Photographie Africaine, with Marilyn Martin, Bamako, Mali
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