Background
Mofokeng was born in 1956 in Soweto, Johannesburg.
Mofokeng was born in 1956 in Soweto, Johannesburg.
While still a teenager, he began his career as a street photographer, went on to work as an assistant in a darkroom, and then he became a news photographer. Subsequently he joined the collective Afrapix. He works under the alias Mofokengâ.
Initially he documented mainly the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.
Mofokeng is known to be able to rearrange conventional subjection in a photographic presentation with a spiritual dimension. An example of this is Chasing Shadows from 1997.
After starting off with street and news photography, he specialized in landscapes. In his images he presents them in relation to ownership, power, ecological effects and memory, but avoids an open political expression.
His work shows his deep concern for the condition of the (biophysical) environment at the beginning of the 21st century.
At his exhibition Let"s Talk in 2010 he explained, that the essence is not what you see in these photographs, but what you don"t see (but feel). Mofokeng exhibited many times. The following list shows his solo exhibitions:
1990: Like Shifting Sand, Market Galleries, Johannesburg
1994: Rumours / The Bloemhof Portfolio, Market Galleries, Johannesburg
1995: Distorting Mirror/Townships Imagined, Worker´s Library, Johannesburg
1997: Chasing Shadows - Gertrude Posel Gallery, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
1998: Black Photo Album/Look At Maine, Netherlands Photo Institute, Rotterdam
1998: Chasing Shadows, Netherlands Photo Institute, Rotterdam
1998: Lunarscapes, Netherlands Photo Institute, Rotterdam
1999: Black Photo Album/Look At Maine, FNAC Montparnasse
2000: Chasing Shadows, Transparencies International, Berlin
2000: Sad Landscapes, Camouflage Gallery, Johannesburg
2003: Chasing Shadows, Memling Museum, Bruges
2004: Rethinking Landscape, Centre photographique d"Ile-de-France (CPIF), Pontault-Combault
2004: Santu Mofokeng, David Krut Projects, New York City
2004: Santu Mofokeng, Gallery MOMO, Johannesburg
2006: Invoice Iziko, South African National Art Museum, Cape Town
2007: Invoice, Standard Bank Art Museum, Johannesburg
2008: Homeland Security, Johannesburg Art Museum
2008: Santu Mofokeng’s Landscape, Warren Siebrits, Johannesburg
2009: Mofokeng survey exhibition, Autograph ABP, London
2010: Chasing Shadows, Anne Arbor Institute of Humanities, Michigan
2010: Let’s Talk, Arts on Main, Johannesburg
2010: Remaining Past, Minshar Art Institute, Tel Aviv
2011-2012: Chasing Shadows, Paris, Bern, Bergen, Antwerp.
Afrapix.