Sydelle Willow Smith
Photographer
African Photojournalism Database
Cape Town, South Africa
Sydelle Willow Smith was born in 1987 in Johannesburg.She is a documentary storyteller based out of Cape Town working predominately across Africa. Publications: NYTimes, NYTimes Lens Blog, Le Monde, 1843 Economist Magazine, Red Bulletin, ADACC German AA Magazine, Le Nouvelle Observateur, The Africa Report, Camera Austria, The Sunday Times, National Geographic Traveller, Clients: Facebook, Doctors Without Borders, DHL, Hak, Travelocity, Red Bull, Adidas, The Children’s Radio Foundation, Fairtrade, The African Center for Cities. Exhibiting globally, Smith was the first recipient of the Gisele Wulfsohn Mentorship in Photography from the Market Photo Workshop and was a winner of the Africa Center Residency Award to attend Jiwar in Barcelona. Smith holds a keen interest in new media technologies and audience engagement based on her Visual Anthropology research background. Most recently her work on white South African identity and belonging as been shortlisted for two prestigious photography grants including the Lucie Foundation and the Dorothea Lange/Paul Taylor Prize from Duke University in collaboration with writer Olivia Rose Walton. In partnership with her filmmaker husband Rowan Pybus she directs and shoots video productions at Makhulu - an apprenticeship based ethical media agency working across Africa based out of Cape Town. Together the duo founded the solar powered mobile cinema, Sunshine Cinema in 2013 - the first of it’s kind in Africa. Running screenings, media workshops and VR immersive activations the alternative distribution platform has worked with The Open Society Foundations Public Health Program, Greenpeace, Encounters Documentary Film Festival, Volkswagen, UNAIDS and the International AIDS Society.
2017 - Women in Photography Mentorship Grant, 2014 - Gisele Wulfsohn Mentorship in Photography Grant, 2014 - Public Exhibition ART54 Award, 2013 - Africa Center Residency Award
- Advertising
- Arts
- Audio capture
- Audio editing
- Editorial
- Environment
- Interview
- Portrait
- Video capture
- Video editing
