Tiandi

This is why we photograph… such an incredible initiative! 🙏🏼

The theme this year is TRUTH. I will go first. Please add your voices!

Why Photography?

It's probably the question I'm asked more than any other.

Why photography, when there are so few collectors of the medium in South Africa? Why a photography festival, when many galleries still don't regularly exhibit photography?

The truth is, I ask myself the same question almost every day.

My relationship with photography didn't happen overnight. It evolved over more than three decades.

In 1994, I joined the South African National Gallery as a member of staff. As Publicity Officer, it was my responsibility to generate media coverage for the exhibitions presented by the Gallery. During the three years I worked there, we hosted several outstanding photography exhibitions - both local and international. While trying to convince journalists that photography deserved attention, I slowly found myself falling in love with the medium.

In 1997, I became the founding curator of AREA Gallery, the first gallery in South Africa dedicated exclusively to photography. A year later, I became a founding member of the Centre of Photography.

But it was a visit to the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City in 1999 that truly changed me.

For the first time, I saw the extraordinary elasticity of photography. I realised that a photograph could be documentary and art, history and memory, protest and poetry - all at the same time. I returned to South Africa with a very different understanding of what photography could achieve.

In 2001, I took a leap of faith and opened The Photographers Gallery ZA.

It wasn't the obvious thing to do.

There were very few collectors of photography in South Africa. Corporate collections were rarely acquiring photographic works. Yet I remained committed to exhibiting hand-printed photographs and work with social and political substance. Decorative pictures were never my interest. I was looking for photographs that asked questions, challenged assumptions and reflected the complexities of our world.

One of my proudest moments came in 2005 when The Photographers Gallery became the first gallery from Africa to participate in a dedicated photography fair in the United States - Photo San Francisco and followed the next year by Photo LA. The sales were encouraging, but the relationships I built there proved even more valuable. Many of those friendships remain an important part of my professional life today.

Another door opened in 2011 when I was invited to the Dali International Photography Festival in China. That visit introduced me to Southeast Asia, a region that continues to inspire my work and has become an important part of my international network.

By 2016, I had become restless. I wanted to understand photography not only as a curator and gallerist, but also as a researcher. My academic work ultimately focused on the role of the art museum, but photography remained at the centre of my thinking.

Since 2015, I have served as a jury member for an international photography competition based in the United States. Year after year, I am reminded of the remarkable breadth of this medium. Photography constantly reinvents itself.

Then, in 2023, I was invited to attend a photography festival in Spain.

On the flight home to Cape Town, I knew.

Cape Town deserved its own photography festival.

The inaugural Cape Town Photography Festival took place in 2025, and I am currently putting the finishing touches to the 2026 edition.

And believe me...

I still ask myself the question almost every day.

Why am I doing this?

Because it is undoubtedly the most challenging project I have ever undertaken.

There is no salary.

There is no financial reward.

There are simply long days, late nights, and an unwavering commitment to a medium that still doesn't enjoy the recognition it deserves in South Africa.

Yet every time another exhibition arrives, every time I unpack a crate and hold the first print in my hands, I remember exactly why I started.

Photography has a unique ability to preserve history, reveal injustice, challenge prejudice, celebrate beauty and give voice to those who might otherwise remain unseen. It doesn't simply record the world - it invites us to see it differently.

That is why I continue.

Not because it is easy.

But because, many years ago, I placed my bet on photography.

And after all these years, I still believe it was the right one.

So, why photography?

Because no other medium has challenged me, frustrated me, inspired me, and rewarded me in quite the same way.

Thirty-two years later, I'm still learning to see.

Photo: Graciela Iturbide. "Eyes to Fly?". Coyoacán. Mexico City (1991).