Ernest Cole Award for Nono Motlhoki
- Wits Alumni Relations
Alumna is the first woman to receive honour since photographic award’s inception.
Artist Nono Motlhoki (BAFA 2021) was announced as the recipient of the 2022 Ernest Cole Award.
The Wits alumna, who completed her degree with five distinctions and two awards, is the first woman to receive the award since its inception.
Motlhoki will receive R75 000 to create her proposed project and she will be supported by a circle of mentors while working towards an exhibition or publication of her work.
The Ernest Cole Award was established to commemorate South African photographer, Ernest Cole, who contributed to the struggle against apartheid and was forced into exile in 1966. He was born Ernest Levi Tsoloane Kole and applied for and was granted reclassification as a coloured person during apartheid. He died in New York in 1990 and his work serves as a reminder of the history of the country as well as the potential impact of photography as a catalyst for change.
Motlhoki is a Johannesburg-based artist who was born in Mabopane in Pretoria and is currently part of the Leipzig International Art Programme until November 2022. She uses a combination of photography, video and printmaking in work and her proposed project will highlight the intensities of romantic love: the thin line between violence and intimacy, especially towards the complexities of representation of black women in relation to romantic love.
The jury, which was comprised of artists Berni Searle, Witsie Lebohang Kganye and Nandipha Mntambo, said Motlhoki’s work “pushes the boundaries of photography in thinking about the power of the image as a social, historical and political reflection”.
The judges further said in a statement: “We are thrilled to support Nono, her proposed project draws parallels between Ernest Cole’s pointed commentary on the lives of black people under apartheid, and her use of turning the lens outward (and inward) to interrogate and perform the black experience right now. Both Cole and Nono’s work is political, speaks with a clear and critical voice, at a particular moment in time when it is needed most.”
Artists who made the shortlist included Lunathi Mngxuma, Phumzile Khanyile, and Theminkosi Hlatshwayo.
See more about the work of Ernest Cole: