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The Market Photo Workshop and Polokwane Art Museum conducted a participatory photography project exploring social issues of sexuality and gender-based violence. The participatory photography project was done in partnership with Polokwane Art Museum with youths from Polokwane from 21 – 29 August 2021. The training and public engagement project focused on the role photography plays in setting social justice agendas especially during these unprecedented times of the global health challenge of COVID-19. The project explored and expressed social issues of sexuality and gender-based violence which are relevant to individuals and communities in Polokwane. The project trained 15 participants in basic photography skills and encouraged the participants to be critically analytical in their application. The project closed with a photography exhibition that included the participants work and Break Even by Nelisiwe Nkosi that details personal experiences of recovering from rape and sexual trauma. Nelisiwe comments on Break Even, “The work that I am interested in and do a lot of is work dealing with issues of rape and other social issues, this is based on personal experiences as much as it is a global issue. My one biggest interest is using self-portraiture to speak about a lot of social issues and tell all these stories. I would also like to use poetry in combination with photography. What started as a personal healing journey for me slowly began to involve other people and speak to larger issues than myself.”

This project and related programming forms part of an annual curatorial thematic at the Market Photo Workshop that focuses on questions of gender and sexuality, presented in partnership with the Open Society Foundation for South Africa.

About the Polokwane Art Museum

The Polokwane Art Museum provides a compelling selection of paintings, ceramics, mixed media and sculptures by artists from Limpopo. Over 1000 works are housed in an indoor collection at the Danie Hough Cultural Centre located in the Library Gardens complex. The Museum features local art icons, such as the celebrated Jackson Hlungwani, Samson Mudzunga, Johannes Segogela, John Baloyi, Avhashoni Mainganye and Lucas Thobejane.