Lindokuhle Sobekwa Wins 2025 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize for Story of Lost Sister
The Johannesburg‑based photographer will take home 30,000 GBP for the ‘impactful rawness’ of his search into the life of a sister who vanished. Save to My Ocula
A South African photographer is the latest winner of a prestigious photography prize for documenting the loss of his sister amid the echoes of similar stories plaguing the country.
Johannesburg-based artist Lindokuhle Sobekwa is the 29th recipient of the 30,000 GBP Deutsche Börse Foundation Photography Prize, awarded for the most significant contribution to photography in the past year.
Sobekwa’s book, I carry Her photo with Me, stems from research of the life his late sister Ziyanda could have lived in a blend of photographs and handwritten notes.
Pages trace the artist’s search for his sister, who disappeared after Sobekwa was hit by a car while she was chasing him as a child, and only returned a decade later after their mother found her in a nearby hostel ill and with scars on her back.
When Sobekwa tried to take her photograph, she refused. She died shortly after, at 22, leaving behind no image of herself bar a family portrait with her face cut out.
As the artist explained to The Guardian last year: ‘She’s not the only one this ever happened to. In South Africa, you will hear this story all the time.’
Shoair Mavlian, Photographers’ Gallery director and jury chair, commended Sobekwa’s ‘powerful’ use of photography ‘to speak about their past, loss and memory, alongside the larger story and challenges of post-Apartheid South Africa.’
‘We hope his work is an inspiration to younger photographers and artists to create something powerful with simple production and impactful storytelling,’ she said.
Sobekwa called the award ‘a huge honour’, stating ‘given our times I think it’s such an important place to be a photographer and a storyteller in South Africa.’
Shortlisted artists Rahim Fortune, Cristina De Middel and Tarrah Krajnak will receive 5,000 GBP. An exhibition of all four artists’ work is on view at The Photographers’ Gallery in London until 15 June 2025. —[O]
Main image: Lindokuhle Sobekwa, I carry Her photo with Me (2024) (detail). Courtesy The Photographers' Gallery, London.
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