Lindokuhle Sobekwa has been awarded the £30,000 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize for the book I carry Her photo with Me, published by MACK in 2024. The artist was selected from a shortlist including Cristina De Middel, Rahim Fortune and Tarrah Krajnak, who will each receive £5,000.
South African photographer Lindokuhle Sobekwa was introduced to photography in 2012 through the Of Soul and Joy Project in Thokoza township, South Africa. He joined Live Magazine as a part-time photographer in 2013 and has exhibited work internationally with Kalashnikow Gallery, No Man’s Art Gallery, Goodman Gallery and Magnin-A Gallery. Sobekwa joined Magnum Photos in 2018 and became a full member in 2022.
I carry Her photo with Me documents Sobekwa’s photographic search for the life his sister had lived in the decade when she disappeared. Combining photographs, handwritten notes and family snapshots, the project explores the artist’s family history and the wider implications of disappearances in South Africa amid the long-reaching ramifications of Apartheid and colonialism.
‘Lindokuhle powerfully uses photography as a way for him and his family to speak about their past, loss and memory, alongside the larger story and challenges of post-Apartheid South Africa’ said Shoair Mavlian, director of The Photographer’s Gallery and chair of the Deutsche Börse jury.
Founded in 1996, the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize rewards artists for ‘having made the most significant contribution to international contemporary photography over the past 12 months’. Winners of previous editions include Lebohang Kganye, Samuel Fosso, Deana Lawson, Cao Fei, Mohamed Bourouissa and Trevor Paglen.
I carry Her photo with Me is on view in an exhibition dedicated to the four shortlisted artists, at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, through 15 June.
