Exhibition Type: Two Solo presentations and a Group Exhibition
Artist(s): Roger Ballen (solo), Koto Bolofo (solo); Pieter Hugo, Nontsikelelo Veleko, Kevin Mackintosh, Antonia Steyn, Tatenda Chidora and Michael Oliver Love (group).
Venue: SMAC Gallery
Address: Burg Street, Cape Town
Exhibition Opening: Thursday 3 September, 18:00
Exhibition closes: Wednesday 25 September
Following a highly successful four-month run in Johannesburg, Fashion_The Image, one of South Africa’s most talked-about fashion photography exhibitions, will form part of the Cape Town Photography Festival with a presentation at SMAC Gallery.
Premiered at the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography and the Inside Out Centre for the Arts in Forest Town, Johannesburg, the exhibition examines the role of fashion photography in shaping visual cultures across South Africa, with its Johannesburg presentation drawing thousands of visitors into the conversation.
Curator and fashion director of Wanted magazine, Sharon Armstrong describes the exhibition as a celebration of images that shifted taste and opened doors:
“These images defined moments, launched careers and shaped how African fashion entered the world. They represent not just the moment, and zeitgeist of their time, but the power of the image and the collaborations that made those images possible.”
Curated by Armstrong in partnership with Aspasia Karras, Editor of Wanted magazine, and developed with Dr Erica de Greef and Ayabukwa Magocoba of the African Fashion Research Institute, the exhibition traces the evolution of fashion photography in South Africa, through a curated selection of works by many of the photographers who have shaped South African fashion photography today.
Fashion_The Image examines how the photograph carries styles, gestures and ways of seeing across generations, re-positioning the fashion photograph from a fragile and disposable medium, to one of the defining visual languages of the past five decades.
The Cape Town iteration features previously unseen collaborations between Roger Ballen and Comme des Garçons, a retrospective of work by Koto Bolofo, one of Africa’s most celebrated fashion photographers, and a curated selection of works by leading contemporary photographers from across South Africa and the continent, including:
Pieter Hugo, Nontsikelelo Veleko, Kevin Mackintosh, Antonia Steyn, Tatenda Chidora, Michael Oliver Love
This presentation offers visitors the opportunity to explore a selection of work from South Africa’s foremost fashion photographers, in collaboration with our most celebrated designers. The exhibition stands as a powerful testament to the richness and ever-evolving visual language of the South African fashion landscape.
