Mpumelelo Buthelezi
Johannesburg, South Africa
Mpumelelo Buthelezi Biography
I was born in the heart of the struggle, in Pimville in Soweto, Johannesburg’s
largest township, a sprawl of formal and informal housing where culture
drummed the heartbeat of resistance.
I was born in the year of democracy, 1994. They call us the Born Frees but
education didn’t come free.
I taught myself to become a photographer. I did it because I wanted to interpret
the time and place I was born into, to tell the untold stories of the communities of
my country, to present them as narratives, full lives lived in the margins.
My parents had a different dream for me, their born free child. I was sent to study
formally and I obtained a Diploma Degree in Engineering at the Central
Johannesburg College in 2016 even though I knew I would never become an
engineer.
Everyone knew about the famous Market Photo Workshop, home to David
Goldblatt and Zanele Muholi, and that’s where I studied photojournalism and
documentary photography, graduating in 2017, the year that protesting students
finally won the first signs of a free education.
.He has exhibited his work at Market Photo Workshop student Gallery in
Johannesburg, Social Art Award in Germany, Transitions Rotterdam Foto
Festival in Netherlands, as well as a solo exhibition at WeTilt in Italy, His currently on an artist residency programme with Muholi Productions and Betive Holdings. He lives
and works in Johannesburg.
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