If there is one thing we could call universal, it would be gender roles. Not only are gender roles universal but they are consistent. From the stone age times till today, people are assigned roles based on their gender. Which leads us to the important question, "what led to the birth of gender roles"?

Snooker superstar Ronnie O'Sullivan bizarrely believes the races are not won by Hamilton but his technically superior Mercedes car. O'Sullivan's (lack of) reasoning is that, "If you have a car that is going a second a lap quicker than the other cars, in theory all he has to beat is his team-mate [Valtteri] Bottas – who seems to be comfortable and happy playing second fiddle".

I being one to never page through an album chronologically, I skip towards the very end and ask Silas which, among the plethora of reasons, is the one that he believes to be the spine that holds together the volume that captures, “come study at Market Photo Workshop”. With no bokeh of hesitation he replies, “why would you come here?” he pauses, muses as if adjusting his aperture and putting the perfect picture in focus, looks back at us on his computer screen, then proceeds, “If there is one reason to bring you to the Market Photo Workshop, it has to be that here you learn how to create images, not how to take them.”

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.