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| From the series "Losing Ground" © Matt Kay |
Post by Juan Orrantia
"Dialogues, from Africa" is a series made in response to
Alejandro Cartagena's running series in fototazo, that wants to extend the dialogue across the Atlantic, but further south. Having been based in Johannesburg for some time now, I have always felt the need to create a space of dialogue where photographers working in Africa and Latin America learn about each other's work, but that is not filtered through the galleries or mainstream media of the global north. The world we live in is not one where limits are traced easily, and within these spaces photographic traditions are increasingly varied, recognized, ignored and reconceptualized. Africa is as complex and varied as Latin America, and this series wants to recognize the current engagements of photographers from the continent with their own histories and the current environments of contemporary photography. In so doing we hope to open a space that enables a dialogue with their peers in Latin America.
The first posts in the series have been with
Alexia Webster,
Musa Nxumalo,
Vincent Bezuidenhout and
Monique Pelser.
Today we continue the series with
Matt Kay.
Juan Orrantia (b. Bogota, Colombia, based in Johannesburg, South Africa) Relying on the evocative as a form of documentary his photographic works use banality and imagination as sites from where to explore experiences of the aftermath of violence; the lives and affects of postcolonial cities; memory and the cocaine trade; and the legacies of anticolonial thinker Amilcar Cabral. Awards include the Tierney Fellowship in Photography, solo exhibitions in Germany, Colombia and South Africa, as well as participation in various group shows including the New York Photo Festival, Le Cube (Paris), Cape Town Month of Photography, Bonani Africa Festival of Photography and Ethnographic Terminalia (New Orleans). His work has appeared in fototazo, Foto 8, Sensate, and other online media platforms and journals.
Matt Kay was born in 1985 and completed the Intermediate and Advanced Photography course at the Market Photo Workshop where he continues to lecture part time.
He was winner of the 2011 CITY award for photography, and was a nominee for the GUP/Viewbook international small stories competition. He was shortlisted for the Hel –Ved new Talent Award 2014 and was selected to participate in the inaugural Joburg Photo Umbrella.
Kay was also a selected artist for the Ithuba Art Fund in 2014. He is the current recipient of the Tierney Fellowship.
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| From the series "Losing Ground" © Matt Kay |
Juan Orrantia: Where are you based? Why?
Matt Kay: Currently I am based between Johannesburg and Durban, most of my commercial work is in Johannesburg, but my own personal projects and interests lie in KwaZulu Natal so I'm trying to find a balance between the two.
JO: How and why did you starting working in/with photography?
MK: Photography was never something I ever considered as a career, I worked on sailing yachts almost straight after high school and through a long and complicated series of events I found myself working on ranch in Texas. It was at this ranch that my interest in photography really kicked in. I bought a camera and taught myself how to shoot and during the next few months I traveled across the States shooting everything in sight. It is hard to say why I started in photography...but once I did it became an obsession. After I returned back to South Africa in 2010 I decided to study photography at the Market Photo Workshop
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| From the series "Losing Ground" © Matt Kay |
JO: What are your projects about, and what are the major themes in your work?
MK: My projects vary, but I use photography as a way of investigating ideas that I don't understand, I feel empowered through photography, in a sense it is an expression of my curiosity, my own misunderstanding and the desire to understand which drives my work. I am interested in disconnection and the subtle but present absurdity in everyday life. I enjoy the use of black and white imagery as it immediately distances my image from reality, this is important within my work as I am more interested in portraying what I felt at the moment I created the photograph than I am in what I saw. The project featured here, called "Losing Ground" is the story around the creation of a large dam in my hometown. The work deals specifically with memory and how photography replaces memory. In this series I have created photographs that represent the land as a reference or a marker in time for myself.
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| From the series "Losing Ground" © Matt Kay |
JO: What is your experience with other photographers and traditions from the (African) continent? How did you learn of them or their work?
MK: During my time at the Market photo workshop I was exposed to a great number of photographers. There is definitely a tradition of South African photography, based in documentary and news. I believe this is because previously there was a common goal, a common cause, an important and obvious role for photography in recording the state of South Africa under apartheid. However I feel there is now room for photographers to explore more open ground and push new photographic narratives.
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| From the series "Losing Ground" © Matt Kay |
JO: How do you feel your approach speaks to South African photography traditions, and/or contemporary photography?
MK: I think in some ways my work is reactionary in that I am attempting to move past the traditional South African narratives of politics and identity and into a more general space where specifics become less important. Holding onto what I instinctively find interesting or important is a key for me, rather than molding myself to shoot work that is considered desired or expected or even relevant.
