About

 

Tshepiso Mabula was born in the small village of Shongoane in the Lephalale district of Limpopo and raised in Mount Frere in the Eastern Cape. In 2002 I moved to Johannesburg to live with my parents. I went to school at Roseneath Primary School, and then went to high school at John Orr technical high school. It was in the year 2012 that I began to show an interest in photography. I was on holiday visiting my uncle and I saw a copy of Santu Mofokeng’s Bloemhof photo book, it was the first time that I saw images of people like me taken in a way that I could relate to. So it was in 2014 when I had to drop out of university because of a lack of funds that I realized photography is my calling. I got a call center job because that was seemingly the best thing to do. I had always done photography as a hobby but this time I was determined to turn it into a career so after a friend told me about the Market photo workshop I enrolled for the photojournalism and documentary photography course and in November of 2014 I quit my job and went back to school

In December of 2015 I completed the photojournalism and documentary course and I set out to become an observer, a visual narrator whose work asks critical questions about society. I wanted to be one of the voices that add to the story of the black child in the 21st century. Having realized that there were few people from townships who spoke about issues that affect township folks I set out to be the person, the voice that tells tales from the South Western side of life.