Neo Ntsoma
Johannesburg South, South Africa
Growing up at a time when apartheid restricted access to photography education for young Black women photographers Neo Ntsoma overcame these challenges through her passion, determination and clear vision of the kind of work she wanted to create and the narratives that she wanted to tell. As a leading South African photographer with an international reputation she is sought after for her photography, her ability to mentor and her capacity to serve as a member of a jury on international photography competitions.
In 2004, Neo Ntsoma became the first woman recipient of the Mohamed Amin Award, the CNN African Journalist of the Year Photography Prize for her photo essay entitled, 'Their World in Flames', which documented the plight of families from a squatter settlement in the commercial centre of Johannesburg when their homes were destroyed by a raging inferno. Among many of her accolades, Ntsoma is also the recipient of the National Geographic All Roads Photography Award and the co-author of ‘Women by Women’, a book on 50 years of women’s photography in South Africa commissioned by the Department of Arts and Culture and published by Wits University Press.
She worked for Sunday Times (SA) and The Star (SA) newspapers, before starting her own visual communications and multimedia company, Neo Ntsoma Productions in 2007, creating visual narratives for corporate clients such as Africa Business Network (ABN), Facebook Inc., Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and others. She has also collaborated with international NGOs like UNAIDS, Oxfam GB, Oprah Winfrey Foundation and International Medical Corps (IMC).
In 2006, Neo Ntsoma was named one of the ‘100 Most Influential Women’ by Africa’s largest media group, Media24, and in both 2004 and 2006 Cosmopolitan magazine included her in their top thirty “awesome women”. In 2019, Ntsoma was featured in the Mail & Guardian newspaper's bulletin of Top 100 Women Changing South Africa.
2013 - Creative Photography Category Finalist, 2006 - MTN Women in The Media Awards - Finalist, 2005 - The NGS All Roads Seed Grant Program Recipient, 2005 - Feature Photography Category Winner, 2005 - GOLD Fine Art Category, 2005 - SILVER Automotive Category, 2005 - BRONZE Manipulation Category, 2004 - CNN African Photojournalist of the Year , 2004 - News Photographs Category Winner, 2004 - Honorary mention News Category, 2004 - Runner-up: Fujifilm Press Photographer of the Year, 2004 - Picture Story Category Winner, 2003 - Picture of the Year Winner, 2003 - Features Category, Highly Commended, 2003 - Picture Story Category, Runner-up , 2003 - Features Category, Runner-up, 2002 - Features Category, Highly Commended, 2002 - Features Category, Highly Commended, 2002 - Features Category, Judges’ Selection, 2002 - Features Category, Finalist
- Breaking news
- Corporate
- Crisis
- Editorial
- Entertainment
- Environment
- Events
- Portrait
- Video capture
Mozambique Tea Pickers_0225.jpg
Neo Ntsoma
(L-R) Paulo Lourenco and Rosa Alfredo, tea-pickers in Gurué where the largest tea plantations in Mozambique are located. Despite the low pay, for many this is the only way they have of supporting their families.
Harvesting tea leaves is done between 4:00 and 7:00 o’clock in the morning. The leaves are then taken to the factory where they will be placed in drying machines before being crushed and made into the final product. Every day, workers have the goal of collecting 50 kilograms of leaves. If they can’t, their salary will be even more meagre, 2010.
Photograph: Neo Ntsoma/Oxfam GB
Malefo Litali_9611.jpg
Neo Ntsoma
Matefo Litali, rushes home to prepare dinner for her family. Litali is a skilled sewer and staunch member of Lesotho Workers Party (LWP), the 53-year-old has worked in garment factories for the past 14 years across Lesotho, a small mountainous country entirely surrounded by South Africa. She starts working at 7.00 a.m. every day, and finishes by 5.00 p.m, accept on weekends, unless she is working overtime. Maseru, Lesotho, 11 December 2020. Photo: Neo Ntsoma/The Fuller Project