Decolonial crossings of contemporary black South African photography

Abstract

The images by the visual artist Kgomotso Neto reveal African decolonial narratives and aesthetic practices represented by new markers of freedom and by the record of everyday life in South African townships and urban centers. The article observes how places, symbols and identities are taken in his photographs, emphasizing the ways in which blackness is perceived and constructed through a lens which reveals new ways of contesting the colonial legacy. Based on the analysis of two of his artistic projects, the text argues that his transit through different references and languages and his intimate relationship with urban daily life allow him to play games with the representations of bodies and places, inviting us to perceiving lifestyles, freedom and fashion as space of struggle and resistance, with which the artist seeks to point out and overcome gaps and colonial oppressions.

Keywords
photography; South Africa; contemporary black art; decolonial; Kgomotso Neto