Haneem Christian is an artist and filmmaker from Cape Town, South Africa. Working through lens-based media, their practice centres and archives Queer and Pan-African narratives, histories and storytelling – holding community as sacred, divine and critical to their photographic ethics. Christian has exhibited in notable exhibitions such as International Cape Town Art Fair, 1-54 New York, AKAA, Latitudes, Unseen photo Fair, and Taylor Wessing at the National Portrait Gallery, London. In February 2022, Christian was announced as the winner of the Pride Photo Award 2022. After completing a residency with Magnum Photos, Christian was awarded the National Portrait Taylor Wessing Portrait Award 2022. Bubblegum Club Magazine states, “Haneem is one of the leading forces of the South African future”

Ruth Seopedi Motau is a South African social documentary photographer with over 34 years’ experience. She is the first black female photo editor in South Africa. Currently she is an independent photographic consultant, photographer, exhibitor, curator, photo editor, mentor and educator. She worked as a photographer and a photo editor for M&G. During her tenure at the MG, she was given the opportunity to work for three international newspaper publications on an exchange programme. She is the former photo editor for Sowetan and City Press. She has won numerous awards, just to mention a few, the Freedom Forum Fellowship from Rhodes University as well as the SABC award for women who made a difference in media. Her work has been exhibited internationally, in countries including Brazil, China, France and the US.

Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi (b.1980, United States) lives and works in Johannesburg. She divides her time between studio work, performance, and navigating the field of art as social practice. Her work investigates the lived consequences of imperial histories and the personal dimensions of political identities, collectivity, and futurity, among other concepts. Her work has recently been exhibited at The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2024), Kunstmuseum Basel (2024), Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort (2023), 15th Sharjah Biennale, United Arab Emirates (2023), Stevenson Amsterdam (2023), Broad Museum of Art, Michigan State University (2023), Naughton Gallery Queen’s University, Belfast (2023), Eastside Projects, Birmingham (2022), and The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town (2022-3).

Motlhoki Nono is a contemporary artist based in Johannesburg. Her practice, Romantic Studies, examines how the articulation and experience of romance manifests at the intersection of race, gender, class and geography. Her practice departs from observing the racialised gap that excludes the experiences of black people as the subjects of love in romantic productions. Using various lens-based media and print as tools, she examines this gap with a decolonial and sociological approach, questioning and problematising the implications of this exclusion on the experience of romance for black women. Her romantic-based practice operates within the absence of black romantic representation, mapping the lines of intimacy and violence within love, in an attempt to contribute towards a black romantic archive that centres the experiences of black women as agents of love. Motlhoki has exhibited her work locally and internationally and has received several awards and grants, most notably the Ernest Cole Photography Award.

Lebogang Tlhako is a photographer and creative entrepreneur who’s not limited to one medium or style. Her roots in Katlehong inspire her creative works, ranging from collage artworks, beadwork, and fashion with the idea of ‘home’ as a central theme. Sibadala Sibancane is a collection of photographs which speaks about her relationship with her mother and how it has influenced and shaped her growth as a young woman. Her work is reminiscent of the era of photo albums, made popular as part of middle-class femininity.