© Lebo Thoka, Refuge of Sinners, 2021

In your work, the attention to women's issues is central. Why did you develop your feminist perspective? How difficult is it to be a feminist in South Africa?

Lebo Thoka (LT): I think I developed this perspective from childhood, being a girl child and observing blatant inequalities that women experienced. And as I got older my dad, who has always encouraged my curiosity about the world, always welcomed my questioning of things that I didn't understand. So I would say my dad’s encouragement of me questioning societal norms as being the main spark that eventually led to that. It is pretty difficult because women in South Africa get murdered every few hours and most often by male partners. So it often feels like being a woman period is just waiting for yourself to be a recipient of violence instead of a human being who deserves value and respect. But I am hopeful of this generation of women I am a part of who are actively moving forward against femicide in South Africa.

How did you develop your feminist approach using photography?

LT: I created black femme figures as leaders of the various stories and experiences that I document and create. The inspiration draws from my personal interrogations with how women exist within religion, how that inspires the general society, and also how black womanhood exists within society and its trials and tribulations.

© Lebo Thoka, 'Mother inviolate', 2021

You are part of the exposition I Exist! from Akka Project, in Venice. Can you say something about it? Which projects are exposed?

LT: It’s an exhibition with myself and Margaret Ngigi, another amazing photographer, and it’s making space for black womanhood within photography and what that looks like and its experiences and storytelling. My series “Seeds Of The Dirt” and two newer pieces “Black of my flesh”, and ”Initiation of Mary” are a part of the show.

Installation view of the exhibition "I exist!" at AKKA project, Venice, 2021

In the series "It's well": an ode to Karabo you compose a tribute to women who have been victims of femicidal violence in South Africa. How did you develop this project?

LT: I developed this body of work in my last year of studying for my degree. During the photographic course, I was doing the class I was in were asked with doing a theme on identity. I struggled quite a lot with coming up with anything as this was the first fine art photography I’ve ever done. So I ended up doing a series responding to the story of Karabo Mokoena because that story was all over the news in my country at the time so I felt pulled to talk about it. This series, being my first, was quite organic to develop actually. I organically created figures that I wish I had seen within Christian books as a child. So I created these figures and wanted them to help tell the stories of all these women who I felt at the time were whole people whose lives were just summarised by their violent ends, I felt that South African women deserve better than to be defined by the circumstances we face here.

© Lebo Thoka, 'Jeanette Cindi Mabitsela',  from the series "It's well": an ode to Karabo

© Lebo Thoka, 'Karabo Mokoena',  from the series "It's well": an ode to Karabo

© Lebo Thoka, 'Sinoxolo Mafevuka',  from the series "It's well": an ode to Karabo

Can you explain to us something about your compositional technique? How do you imagine the figures in their frame? Why did you choose self-portraiture?

LT: My work cycles between having figures exist alone and within groups. Between landscape and portraiture as well. I gather a lot of inspiration long before I shoot, and I use it as a guide. Then I decide if I want to explore figures intimately through portraiture or within a group setting which I think is another form of connection between these figures. I chose self-portraiture because I felt that there’s an intimacy of involving oneself within your work, especially work that talks about living as a woman. I see myself not being a central character at all but purely as a muse.

Your images recall Christian iconography. "Initiation of Mary" and "Black of my flesh" are examples. These two projects, in particular, are a subversion of the eurocentric perspective. Can you explain to us something about it?

LT: I wanted to explore how iconic paintings that document particular stories and scenes can influence the greater society that consumes these works. I wanted to explore how divinity has been rigidly defined to have a certain skin colour and how that affects how blackness and more specifically black womanhood is viewed and treated within religion, and the greater society.

© Lebo Thoka, 'Initiation of Mary', 2021

What are your future projects? Can you say something about it?

I have works that I’m currently piecing together, so hopefully, I will get to show the world soon enough.