Future: Blind photographer Ian Treherne’s arresting black-and-white portrait of disability model Olivia Deane.

He eschews innovation in terms of the latest kit and lighting – “I’ve learnt that less is more –
too much equipment hindered and distracted me from focusing on the subject” – but says
technology has been transformative in terms of connecting and discovering likeminded
people, creating a network that inspires him. It’s also helped him change societal
perspectives around blindness and photography (“they don’t really go together, do they?”).
“Today we [photographers] have such a huge opportunity to showcase our work on social
media platforms. On social media, I can share my photography, be vulnerable, share my
story and hopefully inspire other people to be creative.” 

It’s important to note, however, that however advanced image making technology becomes,
it works alongside and is complementary to human creativity. In the case of elevated
printing, says Williams, translating a photograph into the tactile domain requires a more
complex thought process than the software alone is capable of: “As we know from the
development of braille itself, simply raising all print elements does not automatically make
content fully accessible. Careful decisions have to be made about what can be perceived by
touch and will make sense under human fingertips.” 

Courage, enthusiasm, passion and determination comes from a human element. 

AI, meanwhile, has already shown to be vulnerable to perpetuating stereotypes, which is
why it’s vital that developers consult with the blind and partially sighted community to ensure
that their unique perspectives, experiences and emotions are reflected in the images
generated by AI.
Ultimately, “[the] ease of technology has been a wonderful, powerful tool, but the groundwork
of creativity stems from within. Courage, enthusiasm, passion and determination comes from
a human element,” concludes Treherne.

Main image: Prayer to the Yanomami Goddess by Sebastião Salgado, the world-renowned photographer’s snapshot of life in the Amazon. The shaman in the photo, Koparihewë, was praying to the Yanomami goddess to ask her to stop the rains so Salgado could climb the region’s highest mountain.

Visit here to experience more from the World Unseen exhibition and listen to supporting audio.

LEBOHANG KGANYE, “Mohlokomedi wa Tora,” 2018, Scene 2 (Xanita board on wood). | © Lebohang Kganye

SOUTH AFRICAN ARTIST Lebohang Kganye emerged from a shortlist of four international artists and collectives to win the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2024, including a £30,000 award (about US $38,300). Drawing on oral histories, family photo albums, and South African literature, Kganye’s photography practice is centered on visual storytelling. Her unique approach spans sculpture and moving images, resonating with the performative and theatrical.

Awarded annually, the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize goes to “a living artist of any nationality who has made the most significant contribution, either through an exhibition or publication, to the medium of photography in Europe in the previous year.” Billed as “one of the most prestigious prizes in the world of photography,” the juried prize seeks to bring attention to notable developments in contemporary photography and works of artists shaping the direction of the international photography scene.

Kganye was selected for the prize based on her exhibition “Haufi nyana? I’ve come to take you home,” which was presented at Foam in Amsterdam, The Netherlands last year. The award was announced May 16.

KGANYE LIVES AND WORKS in Johannesburg, where she is pursuing an MFA at Witwatersrand University. Her academic background also includes studying fine arts at the University of Johannesburg (2016) and photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg (2011).

Exploring her personal family history, notions of home, and the collective history of South Africa in the aftermath of colonialism and apartheid, she produces complex works that exist between memory and fantasy. The works include photographic montages, film animation, and sculptural installations that employ life-size, cut-out figures and silhouettes to create layered scenes evincing stage settings.

Her exhibitions include “Sue Williamson & Lebohang Kganye: Tell Me What You Remember,” which was featured at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, Pa., last year.

Kganye is the recipient of several photography awards, including the Grand Prix Images Vevey 2021/22; and Camera Austria Award, 2019. She also won the 2022 Foam Paul Huf Award, which gave her the opportunity to present “Haufi Nyana? I’ve Come to Take you Home,” the solo exhibition the led to her receiving the Deutsche Börse Foundation Prize.

The show features four projects in various mediums—“It’s my inheritance: Her-Story,” 2013 (photographic montages), “Lighthouse Keeper,” 2018 (spatial installation), “Shadows of Re-Memory,” 2021 (film animation), and “The Work of Shadows,” 2022 (patchwork). Kganye discussed her practice and the exhibition in a video made for the prize:

On Storytelling
I always knew that I was passionate about storytelling. When I finished school, I imagined I would become a journalist because I thought that that’s what people who write, that’s the sort of career path that writers go into. I think my earliest work really starts with going back to the sort of literature that I was introduced to as a child, being Western fairy tales. And then I really moved away from that.

On Oral Histories
Oral history has really informed my work a great deal. This is really where the start of me telling my own story began. And so it later then translates into it becoming about the story of my grandfather, who then becomes quite central in the story because he was the first one to move to the city. The installation is these four scenes, two scenes that are about life in the countryside in South Africa. Stories that were shared with me from my family that are about the countryside and two stories about city life.

On Identity and Erasure
Then in the center is meant to be the light and the light is central in the work that’s particularly about my family because Kganye, which is what I’ve been researching—my surname—all of these years, is a Sotho surname which means “light.” It’s meant to have these four different parts that lead you to the center and to experience these four stories that relate to the four different ways in which the family name, Kganye, is spelled. It isn’t just about this surname that evolved over time. It’s very much about the sort of erasure of family identities, the erasure of family names, the erasure of languages. The work is beyond my own family story.

“I always knew that I was passionate about storytelling.… Oral history has really informed my work a great deal. This is really where the start of me telling my own story began.” — Lebohang Kganye

The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize was first awarded in 2005. Recent recipients include Cameroon-born Nigerian photographer Samuel Fosso (2023) and American photo-based artist Deana Lawson (2022), the first Black artist win the prize.

This year, artists VALIE EXPORT (Austria), Gauri Gill & Rajesh Vangad (India), and Hrair Sarkissian (Syria, lives in London and The Hague), were shortlisted alongside Kganye.

An exhibition of the four shortlisted artists is currently on view at The Photographers’ Gallery in London (Feb. 23-June 2, 2024) and will travel to the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation in Eschborn/Frankfurt, Germany, where it opens on Jun 13 and runs through Sept. 22, 2024. CT

IMAGE: Above, at right, Lebohang Kganye. | Photo by Audoin Desforges

FIND MORE about Lebohang Kganye on her website and Instagram

BOOKSHELF
The catalog “Sue Williamson & Lebohang Kganye: Tell Me What You Remember” accompanied the recent exhibition at The Barnes Foundation. A new catalog “Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2024” documents this year’s prize and explores the work of the four shortlisted artists, including Lebohang Kganye.

A photographer at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2018 wedding has slammed the event as “miserable” and a “disaster” six years after the Sussexes’ nuptials.

Harry tied the knot with the Suits alum in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018, in front of 600 guests and a global TV audience estimated at 1.9 billion viewers.

Arthur Edwards, who has been photographing the royal family since 1977, said the couple made his job really difficult and did everything they could to avoid the press.

“I hated the day. The day was a miserable day,” the experienced photographer revealed during an interview with The Sun.

Share iconArthur Edwards, a photographer at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding, said the event was the “worst royal engagement” he ever attended

Image credits: Karwai Tang/WireImage

“It was the worst royal engagement I ever did. Because Harry was determined to keep the newspapers away from it as much as possible,” alleged the 83-year-old.

Arthur reportedly covered royal weddings in the past, such as Prince William and Princess Catherine’s nuptials in 2011 and the wedding of Prince Edward and Sophie Wessex in 1999.

On that occasion, trying to capture a good photograph of the newlyweds was “hopeless.”

“Harry was determined to keep the newspapers away from it as much as possible,” alleged the 83-year-old

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Image credits: The Royal Family

The photographer said the couple turned away when they rode past him in their carriage while greeting the crowd outside, preventing him from getting a good angle for his pictures.

“And then the carriage shot, where they went past me in the carriage, they looked the other way,” he recalled. “So, for me, it was a disaster.”

When the journalist asked whether the Sussexes’ behavior had been “deliberate” to make him feel “unwelcome,” Arthur responded, “I felt so. It wasn’t just me. In many ways, [the press] were badly treated.”

“Harry was angry at us about things said about Meghan. Some of the things were pretty harsh. Some were pretty unfair.

“He was angry, and I felt we were punished for that.”

Arthur reportedly covered royal weddings in the past, such as Prince William and Princess Catherine’s nuptials in 2011

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Image credits: ArthurJEdwards

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Image credits: Jane Barlow/PA Images

Two years after the wedding, Harry and Meghan would step down as senior working royals to move to Montecito, California.

The couple kept their Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles but are no longer addressed as his or her royal highness (HRH). Harry also gave up his military titles.

They are parents to two children: four-year-old Prince Archie and two-year-old Princess Lilibet.

Harry was very critical of the press in the Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan, which premiered in 2022.

In the six-episode series, the Duke of Sussex said there was an “unconscious bias” around race within Buckingham Palace, which especially affected his wife, and denounced the “planting of stories” by the media.

“I feel as though being part of this family, it is my duty to uncover this exploitation and bribery that happens within our media,” Harry said in the first episode. “There’s leaking, but there’s also planting of stories.”

“Harry was angry at us about things said about Meghan,” he explained

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Image credits: The Royal Family

“It all comes down to control; it’s like, ‘This family is ours to exploit. Their trauma is our story and our story and our narrative to control.’”

Harry also slammed the role of the British press in the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in August 1997.

“I think one of the hardest things to come to terms with is the fact that the people that chased her through into the tunnel were the same people that were taking photographs of her while she was still dying in the back seat of the car,” he said in the 2017 documentary Diana, 7 Days.

“William and I know that. We’ve been told that numerous times by people who know that was the case.

“Instead of helping, [they] were taking photographs of her dying on the back seat. And then those photographs made their way back to news desks in this country.”

“It was certainly a disaster for the British taxpayers,” wrote a Facebook user

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An exhibition of work by Dora Maar, the Surrealist photographer immortalized as Pablo Picasso’s “Weeping Woman,” is going on view at the reopening Amar Gallery in London in June amid growing popularity of her work and the reframing of her career.

The show will feature Maar’s photograms and photographs, including her pictures of Picasso and his celebrated anti-war mural Guernica—of which she was the official photographer.

Dora Maar. Virgin and Crucifix II (ca. 1980.) Photo courtesy of Amar Gallery

“As a photographer, she was a pioneer admired by the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Man Ray. Her position as Picasso’s lover clouded over her undeniable artistic talent which extended far beyond photography and included writing, poetry and painting,” gallerist Amar Singh said in a statement.

The exhibition, “Dora Maar: Behind the Lens,” coincides with the upcoming July 4 release of author Louisa Treger’s historical fiction The Paris Muse, published by Bloomsbury, about the relationship between the two artists and the theatrical production Maar, Dora that will perform at Camden Fringe in August for its third run.

“I’m so glad it seems like her work is finally getting its moment in the spotlight,” said the artist Nadia Jackson, who wrote the play—which is produced by Amar Gallery.

Dora Maar. Picasso Under The Trees—Hotel Vaste Horizon, Mougins (ca. 1936). Photo courtesy of Amar Gallery

Maar was born in 1907 and came of age as Surrealism was taking hold in the French capital. Beginning in the 1930s, she ran her own photography studio, producing fashion editorials and advertisements that nonetheless bore a surrealist edge. On assignment on the set of Jean Renoir’s film The Crime of Monsieur Lange, Maar met Picasso, commencing an affair that lasted almost a decade. During that time, Maar served as muse and model for a number of the Spanish painter’s works, including his 1937 Portrait of Dora Maar, while Picasso treated her (and Marie-Therese Walter, who was also his lover) with unabashed cruelty.

After leaving Picasso, Maar commenced a painting practice, creating figurative then abstract works that were shown in various exhibitions through the 1940s and ’50s. In her latter-day career, in the 1980s, Maar would return to photography with her photograms—the technique of creating images without a camera—that once again drew out her surrealist bent. Maar died in 1997 aged 89.

Dora Maar. Virgin and Crucifix (ca. 1980). Photo courtesy of Amar Gallery

Treger said she felt compelled to put Maar at the forefront of her book because she is among many other women who have “often been overshadowed” by their male counterparts. However, she said “there’s a promising shift” towards recognizing and amplifying such female voices.

“This renewed interest in her reflects a broader movement towards viewing iconic male artists like Picasso in a more nuanced way, from the perspectives of the women who shared their lives,” Treger said. She pointed out that Françoise Gilot, whose career Picasso allegedly tried to suppress when she left him, is having her own exhibition at the Musée Picasso Paris.

Jackson likewise said it was fascinating that the photographer “seems to be acknowledged only in conjunction with Picasso,” but warned that erasing him from her legacy would do her a disservice because it would be erasing an important part of her story.

“It was a theme we explored a lot in our play actually—how, as much as Dora would’ve perhaps wanted her work to outshine her relationship with him, it fundamentally couldn’t have existed without him,” Jackson said. “Unfortunately, you have to acknowledge Picasso in order to respect Dora’s legacy in its entirety, but it is also possible to recognize her artistic career and talents without it being overshadowed by him.”

Dora Maar. La Sagrada Familia (ca. 1933). Photo courtesy of Amar Gallery

In talking about the photographer’s artistic talents, Treger said a piece in Amar Gallery’s exhibition that particularly stood out to her is Virgin and Crucifix (ca. 1980), which she said showcases Maar’s mastery of the photogram technique.

“Through the use of tight framing, and dramatic light and shadows, the Virgin and crucifix materialize from an inky background, radiating magic and mystery,” Treger said. “The juxtaposition of sacred and eerie elements prompts contemplation of the deeper layers of meaning within the image.”

“Dora Maar: Behind the Lens” is on view at Amar Gallery, 48 Penton St, London, June 16–August 18.

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For Terry Maday, Chicago offers not only incredible restaurants and museums, but also amazing views.

The award-winning Evanston native has been in the videography business for nearly 30 years. For his most recent project, he sought to capture the Windy City in ways that couldn’t be achieved from down on the ground.

Maday, 56, is one of 15 photographers featured in “Above and Across Chicago,” a new book from Trope Publishing with a collection of photographs taken from helicopters, atop skyscrapers and with drones. The book includes unique views of Lake Michigan, the Chicago skyline and the Lincoln Park Zoo’s winter light display.

“I just helped execute the story, but I feel lucky to be a small part of it,” Maday told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Maday first picked up a DJI Inspire 1 drone in 2016. He said drones, as tool, have been a transformational for his work.

“It’s hard to overstate the game-changing ability of a drone,” he said. “A drone is an incredible tool. I can get a bird’s-eye view and move it exactly to where I want to be without moving from where I’m standing.”

Several of Maday’s photographs are featured in the book, but his favorite is one that doesn’t even look like it’s Chicago.

“It’s a view along Michigan Avenue,” he said. “We, of course, all know Michigan Avenue but as you look South it doesn’t even look like Chicago. It’s not even an epic shot to me — and some of the shots in this book are epic — but it just looks different to me. … I’m always trying to find angles that would surprise someone.”

Maday said the day he took that shot, he was aiming to photograph Cindy’s Rooftop in the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel. All it took was turning his camera south, and he ended up with a surprise.

“I saw those buildings way in the background,” he said. “I just thought if I could get close to the building in the foreground I could create a really interesting perspective.”

Another of Maday’s featured photos is of The Bean at Millennium Park in winter. Access to the iconic Chicago landmark closed down last year as the plaza undergoes renovations. Instead of tourists, the sculpture is ringed by fences.

Maday took the current state of the construction site as an opportunity.

“I captured The Bean, which to be honest it’s disappointing that it’s under construction,” he said, “but as photographers we often say, ‘It’s not a beautiful shot, but it is a moment in time.’”

Though he works with all kinds of cameras, Maday said drones are a tool like no other. And while the quality of images and videos using drones is incredible, there are extra steps required to ensure a safe flight.

“Working with drones is part science, part art,” he said. “You’re flying for the art, but you have to be really diligent about where you’re taking off from, where you’re landing, or if you’re flying over people or over traffic. You need to be really smart and take time to plan and it’ll pay of in the end.”

In the eight years he’s been using drones, Maday said the quality of the tool has increased exponentially. He said while the size and weight of the flying machines has reduced, the quality of the images has increased.

“There is a time and a place for larger drones where you integrate a cinema camera onto a larger platform, but the smaller, lighter all-in-one options on the market are amazing,” he said. “On the motion side, we are able to create beautifully dynamic moves that elevate the production value of our work.”

He felt that the biggest photographic advancement was a feature called Auto Exposure Bracketing. “This allows the camera to capture five photos in rapid succession, which maximizes the exposure across highlights and shadows,” he said. “This is a particularly important feature to utilize when trying to shoot high contrast scenes like sunrise or sunset.”

Maday said he wouldn’t have become a videographer if it wasn’t for his brother Tom’s influence. His brother, who is another Chicago-based photographer, introduced him to cameras and gave him the push to get in the videography business.

Maday attended the University of Kansas and graduated with a degree in journalism in 1991. Though he wanted to study film, he said, there was no hands-on curriculum for film and video production at the time.

He went on to start his own business. Maday Productions, which opened in 1996, is a video production company that helps create content for other companies.

“I wanted to tell stories that were in motion, and after almost 30 years I still absolutely love what I do,” he said. “You go out and you come back and realize that you’ve created something and it’s so satisfying. I feel so lucky that I got involved in a business that allows it to be so gratifying and so fulfilling.”

Now Maday works with a small team of creators that includes his daughter Michaela, who helps run the business’ social media accounts.

He hopes to continue working in the business for as long as he can and though he loves the travel that comes with his job, Chicago holds a special place in his life.

“Chicago is filled with so much talent and I love continuously discovering new things here,” he said. “I just think Chicago is continuing to evolve and change. I like discovering new places, whether that’s restaurants, people or museums — and that includes new angles too.”