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Jabulani Dhlamini
the everyday waiting
Online viewing room
August 19 to September 29, 2020
the everyday waiting comprises a selection of photographs taken by emerging South African photographer Jabulani Dhlamini during the past four months of national lockdown in South Africa.
This photographic essay extends on the emerging photographer’s characteristically contemplative approach to documentary photography, looking at the psychological impact of COVID-19 on South Africans living in confined spaces in the photographer's community, Soweto.
According to a recent article in the British Journal of Photography about this lockdown series, “Jabulani Dhlamini is drawn to peripheries. He avoids the epicentre of an event or situation and turns to its fringes: exploring impacts and effects that would otherwise remain unknown.”
For Dhlamini "Shooting my surroundings at this time led me to understand that this pandemic is starkly highlighting entrenched social and economic problems. After 25 years, what has changed in South Africa’s townships and rural areas? Not enough.”
In 2018, Dhlamini was selected by the Financial Times to document his life for 24 hours for The millennials series, which coincided with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s funeral. Rather than shoot the national memorial event held at the Orlando stadium, Dhlamini focused on informal street-gatherings surrounding the stadium in Soweto. “When everyone is running towards a certain event, we lose some of the meaningful narratives,” he explains.
Dhlamini’s approach, avoiding the major events and focusing on more subtle displays of human experience and interaction, is reminiscent of that of his predecessor David Goldblatt who mentored Dhlamini. For the young photographer, this was a crucial relationship: “getting to know him [David Goldblatt] personally was a turning point in my practice, as the relationship nurtured my understanding of photography like no other”.
A percentage of sales for the online viewing room of the everyday waiting will go to Thol'ulwazi Community Development, a community project which cooks food for orphans in Phiri.
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558a Lenkoe street, Phiri, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
Gertrude Phiri with her daughter (Rebecca Phiri) and her grandchildren, Protea South, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
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“Loved ones”, Phiri, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
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48811 Protea South, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
Alis Maphosa, Tshepisong. Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
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Esther Shabangu, Maserame Modise and Sphiwe Shabangu, Protea South, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
Ha Matsheka,Khumalo Street Phiri, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
.jpg)
Habo Modibedi, Phiri, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
John Kambule, Phiri, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
Lebohang Raethole, Boitumelo Mathibu and her kids, Waterworks, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
Lindiwe Tshabalala, Tshepisong, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
.jpg)
Ntate Moruti Samson Ramaphosa, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
Rita Gabriel Ngulela, Sandra Hlatshwayo, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
Samuel Molefe, Protea South, Soweto 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
Sandile Sesh and Karabo Mofokeng, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
Sheg Mahomed Molefe, Phiri, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
Simon Sekobe, Protea South, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
Sipho Mpanza, Phiri , Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
Tankiso Thulo, Phiri, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
.jpg)
Thabang Seboka, Waterworks, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
Thami Majola, Phiri, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
Tshidiso, Phiri, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
.jpg)
uMhlonyana, Phiri, Soweto, 2020
Ilford fibre silk 270
58.5 x 58.5 x 3.5 cm (each)
Edition of 7
Quoted prices are exclusive of taxes,
custom duties and shipping costs
Biography
Jabulani Dhlamini (b. 1983, Free State, South Africa) lives and works in Johannesburg. Dhlamini majored in documentary photography at the Vaal University of Technology, graduating in 2010. From 2011-2012, Dhlamini was a fellow of the Edward Ruiz Mentorship and completed a year-long residency at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg. Dhlamini’s work focuses on his upbringing, as well as the way he views contemporary South Africa.
Dhlamini’s Umama series was exhibited as part of his Edward Ruiz award at the Market Photo Workshop in 2012, and at Goodman Gallery Cape Town in 2013 – his first solo exhibition with the gallery. In Umama, Dhlamini pays homage to single mothers and explores the challenges faced by women raising children on their own in South African townships. For his Recaptured series, which was exhibited at Goodman Gallery in 2016, Dhlamini turned to the community of Sharpeville, asking people to bring objects that reminded them of the 1960 massacre. Over the course of several years Dhlamini interviewed and photographed a number of individuals who traced their movements and emotions on the day of the Sharpeville Massacre, relocating themselves within the collective memory.
In 2018 Dhlamini’s work was featured on the Five Photographers, A Tribute to David Goldblatt group exhibition at the Gerard Sekoto Gallery at the French Institute. In his most recent exhibition at Goodman Gallery, iXesha!, Dhlamini explored how memory is created and archived within a community where the memory has been localised. This exhibition included images from Dhlamini’s recent series iQhawekazi documenting the events around Winnie Mandela’s funeral.
Solo Exhibitions
2019 Isisekelo, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2018 Ixesha!, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2018 iQhawekazi, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2016 Recaptured, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2013 uMama, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2012 uMama, Market Photo Workshop Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Group Exhibitions
2018 Five Photographers. A tribute to David Goldblatt_, Gerard Sekoto Gallery, French Institute of South Africa and the Alliance Française of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
2016 New Revolutions: Goodman Gallery at 50, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2010 Bonani Africa Photographic Festival, Cape Town, South Africa
2008 Cape Town Months of Photography Festival, Cape Town, South Africa
Awards and Merits
2011 Edward Ruiz Mentorship
2011 Ernest Cole Award, Honorable Mention
2010 Bonani Africa, Honorable Mention
2010 Photo Imaging Education Association, Honorable Mention
2009 Fujifilm Southern Africa Photographic Awards
Academic Record and Residencies
2018 Artist in Residence, A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town
2018 Artist in Residence, Cité des Arts, La Réunion, Réunion Island
2007/2011 Vaal University of Technology, Vereeniging, South Africa