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Bjesovi i Bajaga za vikend na Overload festivalu u Vladičinom Hanu

Bjesovi i Bajaga za vikend na Overload festivalu u Vladičinom Hanu

Bjesovi

Bjesovi, Bajaga i Instruktori i Straight Jackin’ neki su od izvođača koji će nastupiti na ovogodišnjem Overload festivalu koji se održava 29. i 30. jula u Vladičinom Hanu. (more…)

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Conversation with Akona Kenqu

How did you encounter photography as professional practice? I started taking images with Buti's sister's camera. It was one of those point and shoot cameras and we would photograph Hip Hop sessions with it. A year later I went to the Market Photo Workshop to get a picture of myself taken by Buti’s friend Gontse and as we were waiting for these guys we started looking at the exhibition that was on at the time. I just remember leaving the Photo Workshop so inspired. I think I spoke about that experience continuously until I registered a week later. I did a Foundation Course with the Market Photo Workshop I think late 2008 or early 2009 and at that time I was not really into it. I wanted to be a dancer and every afternoon I would rush to rehearsals at Museum Africa. I think almost all the assignments I did were last minute and I remember being told that I had potential and that if I gave the course 100% dedication I could be a dope photographer. And at the same time I was being told to redo the course which didn’t make sense at that time, so yeah I stopped dancing and focused on being a photographer. Why is photography so important to you?  I remember telling myself that if this shit doesn't work after leaving dance then I’m screwed. I think it's also because I lost a lot of my parents' photographs and at some point those images were the only things that mattered to me after their passing. So yeah it’s a bit of a personal obsession and the other reason is to talk about things that I care about, things that I am interested in. And I am interested in different things, so yeah, a lot of work needs to be made. Tell us about your body of work titled Society? Society is a project I received a Women in Photography Mentorship for at the Market Photo Workshop in 2012. I basically followed a group of super cool skaters known as SSS (Skate Society Soweto). My interest to do this project started in 2009. I did a body of work then titled Kick, Push and that was somewhat of a build up to Society. I photographed these guys skating and I also documented their daily activities that were not so “skater”... so yeah the mundane moments and also the really exciting stuff. Tell us about your participation in the France-South Africa Season. That was really cool. Chris Stamatiou and I were selected to go to freaken Paris. The exhibition was too cool. It was basically three generations of South African Art...so artists such as Mary Sibande and photographers such as David Goldblatt, Santu Mofokeng, Zanele Muholi, Mikhael Subotzky, Steven Hobbs and many many more were showing and we were part of that mix. So yeah super, mega, dope experience. How do you negotiate yourself as a woman in such a male-dominated field?  I don’t worry about things like male dominated whatever’s. I'm a photographer and that's what I care about in my profession. I think if I worried about such then I would never actually get to do what I really love. I sometimes get people saying "Oh I thought a guy photographed this" but then what does that mean? I am always left a bit puzzled because what is it to photograph like a woman or a man? Tell us about your involvement in Street Kulture Appreciation (S.K.A). I am one of the co founders/members and I do all sorts of things that are internal to S.K.A. S.K.A is a movement of a group of friends/business partners involved in a larger scale of what the streets are. We love and promote things that we believe in (i.e.music, art, charity) etc. We are currently raising funds to build a skate park in Protea Glen Soweto, so yeah we need everyone’s help to get this project going. For more info about what we do you can follow us on Facebook: Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/s.k.a.r.s/ Group: https://www.facebook.com/StreetKultureAppreciation What's next for you? More projects, more fun, more travelling.