Earlier this year Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO) launched a photography competition, which ended with an exhibition of 62 of the most powerful photo’s received.
Entrants were asked to send through photographs of theirs which depicted their perceptions of the Gauteng City Region, said finalist and Witsie Thato Nkoane. Nkoane came in 4th place for her photo called ‘Johannesburg My City’, which was entered under the politics and governance sub topic.
“There were about 600 entries,” said Nkoane. The ecompetition was made open to students and staff af all university;s in the Gauteng region. The prizes offered were to the value of R15 000. Of wich Nkoane won R1000 and would like to use that money to buy herself a Lomography camera.
The final event came in the form of an exhibition at the FADA Gallery at UJ. There were over 250 people in attandance at the launch of the exhibition last week.
The judges were two photographers, Jodi Bieber and Roger Ballen. The third judge was Khwezi Gule who is the chief curator of the HectorPieterson Museum.
Potsiso Phasha, from GCRO said that “The exhibition, entitled ‘Portraits of a City-Region’, is an illustration of the Gauteng City-Region as a place we interact with with a strong ‘personality’ of its own and one with which we are constantly engaged in building relationships with.
GCRO ran the competition andexhibition in partnership with FADA Gallery at UJ. The GCRO is a partnership between the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Johannesburg and Gauteng Provincial Government.
The top five winning images where taken by the following people (and appear below):
- Blaq Smith
- Jenna-Lee Ferrer
- Irene Lambrianos
- Thato Nkoane
- Martin Bolton
Winning photo, ‘Sunday Morning’ by UJ student Blaq Smith.
In second place, ‘F-CK’ by UJ student Jenna-Lee Ferrer.
Third place went to Irene Lambrianos from the Design School South Africa. Her photography is titled ‘City’.
In fourth place representing Wits, “My City” by Thato Nkoane.
In fifth place ‘The Asphalt’ by UJ winner, Martin Bolton.
