About

 
 

David Southwood is a South African photographer concerned with the medium's production and consumption, human rights, and narratives of marginalised communities. Over 25 years of independent practice spanning personal projects and commissioned work, he has developed a practice grounded in deep engagement with African cities, the built environment, alternative economies, and the power relationships which photography inevitably implies.

While living in Berlin 2003–2007, he won 1st prize in the International Bauhaus Award (2004) for co-authoring an interdisciplinary project on identity in informal settlements near Cape Town. He has made films for the Venice Biennale of Architecture, he co-curated Cities in Crisis exhibition at the University of Johannesburg's FADA Gallery which included Jane Alexander, David Goldblatt, Jo Ractliffe, Mikhael Subotzky, and Guy Tillim. His work is held in the collections of the South African National Gallery, the Finnish Museum of Photography, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Christoph Merian Stiftung, the Goethe Institut (Johannesburg), and the Spier Art Collection.

He has had speaking invitations at Yale (MacMillan Center and School of Architecture), the International Centre of Photography in New York, Ohio State University, the University of South Dakota, the University of Stellenbosch, the University of Cape Town, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

After having worked at UCT teaching 'street-photographers' (black photographers from the townships), in 2000 he co-founded Umlilo, the first non-profit for street photographers in the Western Cape. He served as Chairman of Voice of Africans for Change (VAC), an NGO supporting refugees and immigrants.

EDUCATION

  • 1995 — University of Natal, BA (History and Legal Studies), Dean's Commendation

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

  • 2015 —  'Memory Card Sea Power' Wolff Architects

  • 2016 — 'Memory Card Sea Power' Fourthwall Books

  • 2014 — 'Memory Card Sea Power' and N1 University of the South, Tennessee, SA

  • 2011 — 'N1' Goethe Institute, Johannesburg, SA

  • 2010 — 'Milnerton Market' Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town, SA

  • 2002 — 'nothing in the particular' Bell-Roberts Fine Art Gallery, Cape Town, SA

  • 1999 — 'CASE' Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet, Cape Town, SA

  • 1998 — 'In Between' Joao Ferreira Fine Art Gallery, Cape Town, SA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTED)

  • 2010 — "US" Johannesburg Art Gallery and Iziko South African National Gallery (curated Bettina Malcolmess, Simon Njami) — co-exhibitors not found

  • 2010 — 'The Lie of the Land: Representations of the South African Landscape' Iziko South African National Gallery — co-exhibitors not found

  • 2010 — '1910–2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective' South African National Gallery — co-exhibitors not found

  • 2010 — 'The Big Hole' Kimberley Hotel, Cape Town, SA — with Ed Young, Pieter Hugo, Stuart Bird, William Kentridge

  • 2010 — 'After A, Appunti fotografici sul Sudafrica' Abruzzo, Italy (curated Federica Angellucci) — co-exhibitors not found

  • 2010 — Venice Biennale of Architecture (3 films, Noero Wolff Architects)

  • 2009 — 'Change of Tone' Depot II Gallery, Sydney, Australia — co-exhibitors not found (Graeme Williams also confirmed in this show)

  • 2008 — 'Upstairs/Downstairs' Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town — co-exhibitors not found

  • 2008 — 'Cities in Crisis' FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg (co-curator & participant) — with Jane Alexander, David Goldblatt, Jo Ractliffe, Mikhael Subotzky, Guy Tillim

  • 2006 — 'Olvida Quien Soy - Erase me from who I am' Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria — co-exhibitors not found

  • 2005 — 'Mooimarkshow' Vienna–Johannesburg, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, Austria — co-exhibitors not found

  • 2005 — 'A Decade of Democracy: South African Art 1994–2004' South African National Gallery, Cape Town — co-exhibitors not found (catalog exists, ed. Emma Bedford)

  • 2005 — 'Madness: Photographs of Psychiatric Institutions' (COLORS Magazine) Dr Guislain Museum, Ghent, Belgium — co-exhibitors not found

  • 2005 — 'Psychiatrie in Afrika - fotografische Erkundungen' Prinzhorn University, Heidelberg, Germany — co-exhibitors not found

  • 2004 — 'Staged Realities: the studio in African Photography 1870–2004' Michael Stevenson Contemporary, Cape Town, SA — with David Goldblatt, Constance Stuart Larrabee, Gideon Mendel, Samuel Fosso, Philip Kwame Apagya, Youssef Nabil, Berni Searle, Sue Williamson, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Fatimah Tuggar, Pieter Hugo, Eileen Perrier, Jean Depara, Fazal Sheikh

  • 2004 — 'Interdizliplinaire Raume' Brecht House, Berlin, Germany — co-exhibitors not found

  • 2002 — 'dis/location' Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain — per Dave (unverified): Jane Alexander, David Goldblatt, Santu Mofokeng, Willem Boshoff, Abrie Fourie, Kevin Brand, Roger Ballen, Minnette Vári, and others

  • 2002 — 'After Apartheid: Nine SA documentary photographers' Sasol Art Museum, Stellenbosch University, SA — photographers named (curated by Michael Godby): Andrew Tshabangu, Gideon Mendel, George Hallett, Jenny Gordon, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Guy Tillim (source: Dave's own Artthrob review — his role there as reviewer vs. exhibitor still unresolved)

  • 2001 — 'Untitled' Market Theatre Gallery and City of Johannesburg, SA — co-exhibitors not found

  • 2001 — 'Average' Goethe Instituut, Cape Town, SA — co-exhibitors not found

  • 2001 — 'Rest and Motion' Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, SA — co-exhibitors not found

  • 2001 — 'Dislocation' Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain — co-exhibitors not found

  • 2000 — 'Jokes from Old Folks' video installation, South African National Gallery

  • 1999 — 'X Scapes' NSA Gallery, Durban; Bensusan Gallery, Johannesburg; Finnish Museum of Photography — co-exhibitors not found

  • 1999 — 'Breathe 1' Stockholm, Sweden — co-exhibitors not found

  • 1998 — 'Eye Africa – African Photography 1840–1998' South African National Gallery and Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town —Mama Casset, Cornelius Augustt Azaglo, Billy Monk, Ricardo Rangel, Oscar Mbemba, Omar Badsha, Gideon Mendel, Peter Magubane, Santu Mofokeng, David Goldblatt, Pierrot Men, Bobby Bobson, Mark Lewis, Antoine Freitas, Joseph Agbodjelou, Depara, Sakaly, Samuel Fosso, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Cornelius Yao Augustt Azaglo, Alf Khumalo

  • 1998 — 'In Between' Durban Centre for Photography, NSA Gallery, Durban, SA

BOOKS PUBLISHED/PRODUCED

Own Work:

  • Milnerton Market, 1999–2009 (Fourthwall Books, text by Ivan Vladislavic)

  • The Bill of Rights (2014) — introduction by Constitutional Court Judge Edwin Cameron

  • Memory Card Sea Power (2014, broadsheet newspaper)

  • Memory Card Sea Power — also 4-part series on Africa Is a Country (2013, with Sean Christie)

  • Hustles: Five Years of Local Studio

Speaking Invitations:

  • Yale University (MacMillan Center, School of Architecture)

  • International Centre of Photography

  • Ohio State University

  • University of South Dakota

  • University of Cape Town

  • University of Stellenbosch

  • School of the Art Institute of Chicago

  • University of the South, Sewanee

RESIDENCIES

  • 2009 — Gyeonggi Creation Centre, South Korea

  • 2008 — Casa Africa, Canary Islands

  • 2007 — PRO HELVETIA, Basel

  • 1999 — SHUTTLE 99 exchange (Finland–South Africa)

INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS

  • South African National Gallery, Finnish Museum of Photography, Constitutional Court of South Africa, Christoph Merian Stiftung, Goethe Institut (Johannesburg), Spier Art Collection, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, private collections

PRESS/EDITORIAL/PUBLICATIONS

Magazines Featured In: Adbusters, Architectural Review, Architectural Record, Architectural Digest, Art, Art South Africa, Baby, Blueprint, Casa da Abitare, COLORS, Domus, GQ, Harpers and Queen, ICON, Liberation, Mail and Guardian, New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, Style and the Family Tunes, Telegraph, Wallpaper, Die Zeit, W-Magazine

Selected Reviews & Written Work:

  • Artthrob — multiple reviews; interviewed Roger Ballen (2001); reviewed 'nothing in the particular' (2002); reviewed 'After Apartheid: 10 South African Documentary Photographers' (2002)

  • Design Indaba Magazine — "Image Conscience" (2005)

  • Mail and Guardian — 'Cape Town sees the light' (2002)

  • SA Photo Centre — Kodak Street Photographer Job Creation Workshops report (2000)

  • Africa Is a Country — "Under Nelson Mandela Blvd" (2013, with Sean Christie)

EQUIPMENT & TECHNICAL SKILLS

Cameras: Point and shoot, sheet film, large format 4×5, Nikon Z8
Processing: Black and white (self-processed), IMAX scanner, archival Epson printer
Software: Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, InDesign, Ableton
Audio/Music: Microphones, synthesizer, Ableton Push; writes about sound, press releases for musicians, produces soundtracks and podcasts
Other: Video production and post-production