Q/A Mpumelelo Buthelezi
A “Born Free” from South Africa, photographer Mpumelelo Buthelezi is determined to prove himself as an artist as he overcomes years of generational trauma.
Mpumelelo Buthelezi was born in the heart of the struggle, in Pimville in Soweto, Johannesburgʼs largest township, a sprawl of formal and informal housing where culture drummed the heartbeat of resistance. He was born in the year of democracy, 1994. They call those born in that year the Born Freeʼs but for him, education didn’t come free.
Mpumelelo taught himself to become a photographer because he wanted to interpret the time and place he was born into and to give voice to the untold stories of the communities of his country by presenting them as narratives.
However, as Mpumelelo tells us, his parents had a different dream for their Born Free child. He was sent to study engineering where he obtained a Diploma Degree in Engineering at the Central Johannesburg College in 2016. He graduated despite knowing that, deep down, he would never become an engineer.
Now, Mpumelelo focuses on what he says is his freedom: his passion for photography. In 2017, Mpumelelo studied photojournalism and documentary photography at the famous Market Photo Workshop, home to David Goldblatt and Zanele Muholi.
After graduating, his journey has led him to the unfamiliar spaces of society that we have all seen but do not stop to examine. He has exhibited his work at Market Photo Workshop, a student Gallery in Johannesburg; the Transitions Rotterdam Photo Festival in the Netherlands; a solo exhibition at WeTilt in Italy; and the Kampala Photo Biennale in Uganda. Mpumelelo also received the Social Art Award in Germany.
Mpumelelo currently is on an artist residency program with Muholi Productions and Betive Holdings. He lives and works in Johannesburg. This is his story.
“INGILOSI” is a Zulu term that we use in my native language which simply means “an Angel.” According to the Christian faith, an angel is known as a servant of God. INGILOSI is about being a faithful servant of Jesus too.
This photo series is about the void and exploring being “Holier than thou.” It’s about expressing different aspects of being an angel and discovering different ways of being and seeing. I had the pleasure of photographing myself recently in my room as INGILOSI and exploring different aspects of being “Holy” in your comfortable place.
But yet also this series also ties into ISOLATION as well, because as I was photographing myself in my room I felt isolated in my own environmental space. The images also represent a creative approach to reinforcing the importance of self-isolation during the coronavirus pandemic.
It was a wonderful process to document. It’s an extended way of exploring my own ideas of being an angel and my personal gender identity.
— Mpumelelo Buthelezi
Q: What motivates you to do what you do?
A: Personally what motivates me to do what I do is to be able to share knowledge without fear of being vilified or losing anything. Let us share brilliance, let us share the wealth, let us publish more books featuring the works of black people by black people-for us by us, on us; for posterity and to be able to change peoples perspectives in the work that I do. To be honest, it is all about making a difference in people’s lives, and also instigating social change through my artistic practice.
Q: How did your parents feel when you changed your career path from engineering to photography?
A: They didn’t feel any bad at all. But instead, they still pushed me and encouraged me to follow my dream of creating images and making a difference. I’ve always had a passion for the arts, but I didn’t think I was going to become a photographer until I was taken to a photography school for free to enhance my knowledge and skill. So I knew from there that I needed to make my photography career pay the bills for me and my family.
Q: What made you feel that you couldn’t become an engineer?
A: I didn’t know what to do after high school and it’s where I was offered a bursary learnership in the fields of engineering and I couldn’t regret the offer at my disposal. But then still my passion was for the art truth be told. And I believe in life we all should know ourselves, and I knew that engineering is not something of my caliber.
Q: What has life been like during the pandemic?
A: To be honest life will never be the same after cover-19. This is the new shift or rather change of living in our lifestyle. Life has not been easy generally for that matter, but the pandemic made the choice of lifestyle to be different. Life is all about living and serving the purpose in this doomed world weʼre living in. I would personally say covid made me appreciate the value of existence, and I had questions to myself asking myself as to who am I? Why am I here? Whatʼs my value in human existence?
As an artist for one, covid made us think or rather create work in secluded environments of which for me, it became one difficult task to do. or rather adapt because we as creatives we think outside of our comfortable environmental spaces. So my camera has become an ally in the fight for sustainable change. Hence thatʼs why most of the work, I produce is mostly work that touches around the themes of research concerning sustainable change, issues affecting humans from a human perspective, social documentary (social activism), and Religion. It finds itself at the intersection between documentation, storytelling, and activism.
I became determined to create work in relation to the pandemic. Even this series is a self-discovery about depicting myself as an Angel of God recently in my room as an INGILOSI, - an Angel - exploring different aspects of being Holy in your comfortable place. I have been exploring different spaces where I find comfort to carry on photographing myself in these spaces. I have been self-developing that photo series during my artist residency.
Q: Can you talk more about your journey in discovering yourself as an INGILOSI or an “Angel of God”?
A: Life is a journey, so is religion. So Iʼm a Christian believer but particularly Iʼm a Seventh-Day Adventist goer. So my spiritual journey in discovering myself as an Angel ties in with what I believe. When you read the Bible or the holy scriptures you get a sense of imagination about how holy angels of God are towards him. According to (Matthew 4V10) in the bible “Jesus says Worship the Lord, your God, and serve him only. Angels were created by God (just as we as human beings were), and only our Creator is worthy of our adoration. So when photographing myself in isolated environments I always get different feelings and imaginations of how Angels are, how they behave, and how should they look. Then I referred that through incorporating different garments to make my images look artistic.
Q: You talk about creating art about “humans from a human perspective.” What is your philosophy on humanity and what it means to be human?
A: To be human is to live your life with the purpose and to be able to make a difference in someone else’s life. A responsible choice is a choice that takes into account the consequences of each of your choices. In order to make a responsible choice as a human you must ask yourself, for each choice that you are considering, what will this produce? Do I really want to create that? Am I ready to accept all of the consequences of this choice?
Q: You ask questions such as, “Why am I here?” and “Whatʼs my value in human existence.” How would you try to answer those questions yourself?
A: The core value of existence in everybody’s life is trying to make a living for themselves. If you don’t self-discover yourself, no one else will besides you. That’s called the nature of human existence itself. So, I believe, whatever you learn, you must teach, and whatever you get, you must give.
Q: Having been born in 1994, the year apartheid had finally come to an end, you note that your generation is called the “Born Frees.” As a black South African, how has your experience growing up differ from that of your parents?
A: The truth is we were born in different time frames, and they were born in an era or rather period of time where their dreams never came true due to the effects of the apartheid regime. I was conceived in a period in which the country had paved ways for us to be able to have freedom of choice in whatever we wanted to achieve. But the governmental systems of ruling the country had different methodologies for us as South African citizens to abide in their ruling of the country. They call us “Born Frees” but our education system never came free and nothing is granted free in our country. So it raises questions as to why then did they call us “Born Frees”? Why are they saying we are free whilst thereʼs are still social classism concerning being black and being white? What is this world that we find ourselves in by no choice of our own?
Q: How do you think we can make the world a better place?
A: By being true to ourselves in what we do, and always being fruitful and multiplying everything we have in our choice of lifestyle. In doing so, the world will be a better place. Life will be good if we spend it with the people who share the same vision, and who are willing to make this world a better place.
Q: Describe yourself in a few words?
A: Good Listener, Compassionate and Generous
Q: What does happiness mean to you?
A: To be true to yourself, projecting good vibrations. and being able to reciprocate the same vibration from human existence. I think people who vibrate at the same frequency, vibrate toward each other. They call it, in science, systematic vibrations. That’s what happiness means to me.
Q: What is the most important lesson you have learned in your creative journey so far?
A: I have learned in my creative journey as an artist, to free our hearts from hatred and worries, live simply, give more, and expect less.
Q: What inspired the realization that this is the path you need to follow?
A: To be honest I felt that we as black people, or rather nation, owe it to ourselves to create sustainable change in the work we do.
Q: What have been some of the trials and tribulations that you have had to face?
A: That nothing comes easy in this doomed world we live in. You need to fight for what you want. One of those trials and tribulations is trying to master the art of self-discipline in everything that I do. But, a tough trial and tribulations I had to face, especially as a black South African, is that weʼre not seen as being resourceful. We always have to do things to prove that weʼre knowledgeable even though we have the skills. The truth is we’re determined in what we want to do in order to better our lives and the system hasn’t changed because we are always regarded as second-class citizens in everything we do.
Story Editor: Samantha Sklar