Work by Africa's finest photographers goes on auction for a worthy cause

Following the success of last year's Aspire Art and Photography Legacy Project (PLP) auction, the PLP was able to make valuable gains in the organisation's project to digitise some of the most significant work of photographers from SA and the rest of Africa.

Last year's auction realised just over R2m and set world auction records for the works of photographers Ernest Cole and Kiluanji Kia Henda.

Now Aspire and the PLP have collaborated for a second auction to raise money for the PLP's project, while also assisting a host of photographers from across Africa.

This year's selection features work by 68 artists working in a vast array of countries to showcase diverse and exciting expressions of social, political and everyday realities in Africa.

Broadly organised under the theme "Africa by Africans", the auction features a mix of work from emerging photographers, established award-winning contemporary photographers and heavyweight established photographers from previous generations.

The Afrofuturist work of the Kongo Astronauts collective sits alongside more traditional forms of social documentary photography from the likes of Nigeria's Etinosa Yvonne, Algeria's Abno Shanan and Kenya's Gorwin Odhiambo. These offer an intriguingly different but sometimes similarly themed vision of the concerns, dreams and hopes of young people in a connected digital era.

The World Press Award-winning collaboration between South African photographer Lee-Ann Olwage and cross-dressing participants celebrates transgender and gay communities through the staging of fashion shoot scenes in the townships of Cape Town.

Zimbabwean Tamary Kudita's Sony World Photography Award-winning series African Victorian uses traditional portrait techniques to disrupt stereotypes in the representation of African identities.

The older generation of South African photographers is also well represented, with images by veterans David Goldblatt, Alf Khumalo, Michael Meyersfeld, David Lurie and Drum legend Bob Gosani and a 12-print selection of works from the archive of apartheid documentarian Cole.

There are also a series of significant historical images captured by Kenyan photojournalist Mohamed Amin, who was killed during a plane hijacking in Ethiopia in 1996, and a selection of the work of veteran South African photojournalists like Greg Marinovich, TJ Lemon and Graeme Williams.

The PLP continues to centre its interest in vernacular photography with several works from the archives of street and studio photographers including the portraits of Durban studio portraitist Bobson Sukhedo Mohanlall and works by street photographers William Matlala and Ronald Ngilima.

The auction is taking place while much of Africa is still in the process of emerging from the extraordinary moment of the Covid-19 pandemic and there are photographs that reflect this — work by South Africans Marc Shoul, Lindokuhle Sibeko and Jabulani Dhlamini and the performative work of Cameroonian artist Lamyne M.

Aspire MD Ruarc Pfeffers says: "Over the past two decades, photography from Africa has become one of the hottest art markets with a growing, global collecting audience. In less than five years, Aspire has made meaningful advances in actively developing the market for photography, African photography in particular, at auction locally and abroad.

"The extraordinary quality and relevance of the artworks comprising this year's auction support Aspire's vision and ongoing mission of broadening the market for African art, increasing global appreciation and, by extension, value, for the incredible artistic production that emanates from this continent."

Competitively priced for the pockets of both newcomers to the photography market and established collectors, there's something for most interests and tastes available in the 127 lots offered here.

Curator Brenton Maart writes in his essay for the accompanying catalogue that the photographers present their subjects as "free of external imposed status — uplifted beyond political, economic or social strata, transcending class, race and religion, shunning ethnicity and, sometimes, gender." 

• The second Aspire X PLP Auction is a timed online auction running until July 27. Physical lots are available to view in Cape Town by appointment on 021-418-0765. To view the e-catalogue and register to bid, visit aspireart.net