Perfect timing and soothsaying can never really be taught; a part of it comes naturally and most of it requires a willing and an engaged initiate. The Market Photo Workshop gets this very well; hence its pedagogic method is framed as ‘workshoping’ rather than training. And so an interactive environment is created between student (initiate) and teacher (initiator). Maditsi attests to this: “At MPW, no one is superior. Everyone is respected for the artist that they are.”

There is so much that is said, written and reported about fathers that today I wish to shift my attention and write about a particular set of experiences with our mothers. These experiences are in no way a reflection on all mothers nor is it a rebuttal on behalf of failing fathers.

The 2020 World Press Photo contest winning image, by Yasuyoshi Chiba, does not instantly take one’s breath away. It reminds you of the deliciousness of breathing, in a year where breathing was made difficult in so many ways. It fills you with heartfelt hope for the future, in these dark times.

Once we were dreamers, motivated by the possibilities of clicking shutters and creating life-changing compositions that would, one day, turn into life-giving images – depictions of our past and present that will help to paint the landscape of the times in which we live.

Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane is under attack from real patriarchy. Media, judiciary and politics. The latest attack on her is now financial harassment of tax records using SARS to intimidate her.

To this day, I still cannot explain how I ended up on the front pages of the tabloids together with a decapitated bishop. Who would have thought Busi could do such a thing, kill a bishop?

Back in 1998, Market Photo Workshop alumnus, Themba Hadebe found himself in a decrepit Hillbrow alley strewn with what perhaps in hindsight was to become the new South Africa. Four years into the democratic project, municipal services were deteriorating, and in that grimy alley, Hadebe trained his camera on a police detective. Black, blue shirt, black shoes, tie, and pants lined to a crisp.

Poetry Over A Pandemic is the proverbial oasis in the midst of a scorching desert sun and thus will provide much needed relief and sanctuary, restoration of a sense of community and healing that only poetry accompanied by hauntingly beautiful and soothing sounds of a variety of indigenous musical instruments can provide.