Through The Lens Collective

EVERYDAY A WOMAN

CELIA BOUGAL

Algerian photographer, Celia Bougal, joins TTLC’s online platform this month to recognise and honour the work of Africa’s women and non binary lens based artists during the month of August.

In South Africa, August is celebrated as Women’s Month. It commemorates the 1956 women’s march to the Union Buildings in protest against apartheid’s pass laws. The month is dedicated to honoring women’s achievements, raising awareness about persistent inequalities, and promoting gender equality.”

“ You Can See Me But I Can’t “ :
I lost my grandfather when I was four years old. At that age, I wasn’t supposed to remember much, nor understand what death was, and yet it remains one of the most defining events of my life. On the day he died, my mother told me that I kept waiting for him to wake up so I could bring him his afternoon café au lait. When I realized that he would never wake up again, I never stopped mourning him and I still haven’t to this day.
Through this project, I tried to understand why I have suffered so deeply from his loss when all I remember are fragments of memories whose origins I cannot trace. Are they truly my own memories, or are they constructions of my memory, of my imagination, pieced together from family stories? When I was little, my father worked very far away, in a town near the Libyan border, so my grandfather was the one who was there. In a way, he had taken my father’s place during his absence. Perhaps, in losing my grandfather, I had also lost a father.

Bougdal Celia

Last night the inaugural New Eyes Award opened at the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography in Johannesburg. This award was created to feature the exceptional talent of young emerging South African photographers. The work stands alongside the prestigious Decisive Moment exhibition from the Sony World Photography Awards.

The recipients of the award- Karabo Mooki, Dani Terblanche and Zwelibanzi Zwane were selected by a panel which included Emilie Demon, Jabulani Dhlamini and Michelle Loukidis working in photographic education and curatorship.

Decisive Moment: Sony World Photography Awards brought a selection of winning images from one of the world’s leading photography awards to South Africa for the first time.

Dani Terblanche is a TTLC mentee and the exhibition features her work ‘I should have burnt more cars.’

A deep thank you to the Sony Awards and the Roger Ballen Foundation.

Opens: 15 August
10:00 - 14:00

Roger Ballen Centre for Photography
Dani
Zwelibanzi Zwane
mookimooks

online exhibition open call

ILLUSIONS OF AUTONOMY

Contemporary society frequently celebrates the independence, leadership, and empowerment of modern women. However, this narrative of linear progress often masks a more complex reality. Beneath the surface of social advancement lies a sharp contradiction: the promise of absolute freedom alongside the systemic rollback of rights, the heavy burden of modern expectations, and the ongoing policing of women’s bodies.

Illusions of Autonomy seeks to interrogate this paradox. The exhibition explores the schism between public promises of liberty and the actual restrictions that dictate daily life. We invite lens-based artists to submit provocative, critically engaged photographic work that looks past superficial narratives of liberation to reveal the real fractures in contemporary women’s autonomy.

We welcome all photographic styles—including documentary, portraiture, conceptual, and surrealism.

Who Can Apply

Open to all self-identifying women and non-binary lens based artists globally.
All experience levels—from emerging artists to established professionals—are encouraged to submit.

Link in bio for details on submission

EVERYDAY

DANIELLA ALMONA

Featuring the beautiful work of Nigerian artist, Daniella Almona as part of TTLC’s online platform recognising and honouring the work of Africa’s women and non binary lens based artists during the month of August.

In South Africa, August is celebrated as Women’s Month. It commemorates the 1956 women’s march to the Union Buildings in protest against apartheid’s pass laws. The month is dedicated to honoring women’s achievements, raising awareness about persistent inequalities, and promoting gender equality.”

Daniella Almona

EVERYDAY A WOMAN

GONTSE M. NTOMBELA

Featuring South African photographer, GONTSE M. NTOMBELA, as part of TTLC’s online platform recognising and honouring the work of Africa’s women and non binary lens based artists during the month of August. Her black and white work centering around dead withered flowers, leans into themes of decay, time, memory and the hidden beauty of transitions.

In South Africa, August is celebrated as Women’s Month. It commemorates the 1956 women’s march to the Union Buildings in protest against apartheid’s pass laws. The month is dedicated to honoring women’s achievements, raising awareness about persistent inequalities, and promoting gender equality.”

Gontse M. Ntombela

EVERYDAY A WOMAN

NADIA ETTWEIN

Featuring a selection of exceptional work from South African photographer, Nadia Ettwein, which is part of TTLC’s online platform recognising and honouring the work of Africa’s women and non binary lens based artists during the month of August.

In South Africa, August is celebrated as Women’s Month. It commemorates the 1956 women’s march to the Union Buildings in protest against apartheid’s pass laws. The month is dedicated to honoring women’s achievements, raising awareness about persistent inequalities, and promoting gender equality.”

Nadia Ettwein

An absolute pleasure to launch the first of the TTLC Mentee Online Platform Exhibitions today, with the work ‘to swallow hot coals’ by Kenyan artist Neemo Mungai.

Neemo Mungai is a Kenyan visual artist working across photography and digital collage. Her practice is one of self-investigation, moving through family photographs, archival documents, and personal records to give image and form to the things she is working to understand, the cost of belonging to a family, a culture, a history. Her body of work forms an ongoing archive of inheritance: what is carried, what is contested, and what is finally claimed.

PLEASE NOTE THE EXHIBITION IS BEST VIEWED ON A DESKTOP.

LINK IN BIO

neemo.

To swallow hot coals

An absolute pleasure to launch the first of the TTLC Mentee Online Platform Exhibitions today, with the work ‘to swallow hot coals’ by Kenyan artist Neemo Mungai.

Neemo Mungai is a Kenyan visual artist working across photography and digital collage. Her practice is one of self-investigation, moving through family photographs, archival documents, and personal records to give image and form to the things she is working to understand, the cost of belonging to a family, a culture, a history. Her body of work forms an ongoing archive of inheritance: what is carried, what is contested, and what is finally claimed.

PLEASE NOTE THE EXHIBITION IS BEST VIEWED ON A DESKTOP.

LINK IN BIO

neemo.

EVERYDAY A WOMEN

Thandy Pinto

TTLC’s online platform recognising and honouring the work of Africa’s women and non binary lens based artists during the month of August. Today we look at Mozambican artist, Thandy Pinto, with a selection of work from her Body of work, Mindelo 1976.

Thandi Pinto

In South Africa, August is celebrated as Women’s Month. It commemorates the 1956 women’s march to the Union Buildings in protest against apartheid’s pass laws. The month is dedicated to honoring women’s achievements, raising awareness about persistent inequalities, and promoting gender equality.”

womensmonth

online exhibition open call

ILLUSIONS OF AUTONOMY

Contemporary society frequently celebrates the independence, leadership, and empowerment of modern women. However, this narrative of linear progress often masks a more complex reality. Beneath the surface of social advancement lies a sharp contradiction: the promise of absolute freedom alongside the systemic rollback of rights, the heavy burden of modern expectations, and the ongoing policing of women’s bodies.

Illusions of Autonomy seeks to interrogate this paradox. The exhibition explores the schism between public promises of liberty and the actual restrictions that dictate daily life. We invite lens-based artists to submit provocative, critically engaged photographic work that looks past superficial narratives of liberation to reveal the real fractures in contemporary women’s autonomy.

We welcome all photographic styles—including documentary, portraiture, conceptual, and surrealism.

Who Can Apply

Open to all self-identifying women and non-binary lens based artists globally.
All experience levels—from emerging artists to established professionals—are encouraged to submit.

Thank you to Stefanie Langenhoven for her incredible image

Link in bio for details on submission