This is the first exhibition resulting from my collaboration with South African photographer William Matlala and the portraits he produced of- and for the people around him during the 1980s. See this publication for a monologue based on conversations William and I had July 2024.
“I’ll be your mirror” is, next to a favourite Velvet Underground song, the title of a double exhibition which presents edits of photographs produced by William Matlala, alongside portraits by Zambian photographer Alick Phiri. The show is hosted by the Everyday Lusaka Gallery, in partnership with the inaugural Bakashimika International Photography Festival. Sana Ginwalla, owner of the gallery, and I produced and curated the show together.
Alick Phiri (b. ZW, 1948) is a Zambian photographer whose photography career began in 1965. He is one of the few surviving professionally trained black Zambian photographers who practised from the 1960s to the 1990s in Lusaka. Alick makes a public debut of the black and white portraits he made of himself, as well as people outside their homes, with their families, or in the street.
William Matlala (b. SA, 1957) is a photographer living and working in Johannesburg. He started his path as a photographer producing portraits during the 1980s, the last decade of apartheid.
I’ll be your mirror includes selected prints in which several portraits are entangled. All of these portraits were produced around the Trimpak packaging factory in Germiston. Matlala worked in this factory at the time, and in addition offered photographic services to his co-workers.
Matlala is a practicing documentary and reportage photographer. He lives and works in Johannesburg.
“I’ll Be Your Mirror” also features writing from Dr. Siyabonga Njica, a literary and cultural historian based at Cambridge University. His work draws on the histories of black transnationalism in the twentieth century, African and diasporic intellectual traditions, and the black literary and sonic archive. An open access publication which will include Dr. Soyabonga Njica’s text as well as a contribution by me will be made available asap.
Exhibition documentation by Everyday Lusaka Gallery and Lloyd Mabaire. The exhibition is on until August 9th