Svea Josephy

Svea Josephy
Born 1969, Cape Town, South Africa
Occupation Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Michaelis School of Fine Art, photographer

Svea Josephy is currently a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art[1] (photography) at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. She is best known for her work with "twin towns,"[2] where she draws parallels between settlements and suburbs surrounding South African cities to other places around the world. Josephy's work has been displayed in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally.

Background

Born in 1969, Svea Josephy was raised in Cape Town, South Africa and currently resides in Rondebosh, a primarily residential southern suburb of Cape Town. Josephy first became interested in photography when she was a child. She had a darkroom in her home when her stepfather went through an amateur photography phase, which prompted her interest in photography. Her first camera was an old Olympus Trip 35. Today however, she mostly uses a Hasselbald camera.

Studies

Josephy completed her Bachelor of Arts (in Fine Art) at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town, in the late 1980s to early 1990s. Josephy then in 2001, completed her Master of Fine Arts cum laude at the University of Stellenbosch.[3]

Work

Josephy's primary focus in her photographic work has been the study of how identity and landscape are constructed. Specifically, she is most well known for drawing parallels between "twin towns" in South Africa and in other parts of the world. Her project of "twin towns" examines the peculiar names of South Africa's settlements and suburbs. Examples include: Sun City, Lost City, Lapland, Beverley Hills, Egoli, Cuba, Kosovo, Lusaka, Malibu, Hyde Park, Green Park, Lavender Hill, Athlone, Harare, Waterfront, Potsdam, Bosnia, Beirut, Iraq and Hanover Park.[4] These names evoke certain images that can be connected and related to various parks, streets, cities and countries located all over the globe.

Josephy mostly concentrates on the various settlements that surround cities in South Africa. She focuses on tracing the complex set of relationships, identifying both differences and parallels, with places or events after which South African settlements are named. Her images are for the most part presented in diptychs, which exhibit the ‘original’ and the ‘copy’ in contrast to one another.

Inspirations and influences

Bernd and Hilla Becher, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth, Candida Hoffer and Wolfgang Tillmans, Stephen Shore, Robert Adams, Paul Graham, Martin Parr and Ed Burtynsky. Among South African photographers, Josephy is particularly interested in the work of David Goldblatt, Dave Southwood, Guy Tillim, Mikhael Subotsky, Santu Mofekeng, Pieter Hugo and Jo Ractliffe.

Awards and scholarships

Josephy has received the following awards and scholarships: Prix du Ministre de la Culture DAKART 2010 9th biennial of Contemporary African Art, IFAM, Dakar, Senegal, the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) Project Award (2009), National Arts Council Award (2008), the A.W. Mellon Emerging Scholars Award (2008), Malan Trust Curatorship Award (2007), Harry Crossley Scholarship (2000), Maggie Laubscher Scholarship (1999), Simon Gerson Prize (1993) and the Irma Stern Scholarship (1992).

Exhibitions[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Svea Josephy: Michaelis School of Fine Art". Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  2. ↑ "Svea Josephy".
  3. ↑ "Biography". Photocenter. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  4. ↑ "Svea Josephy-Biennale de l'Africain Contemporain".
  5. ↑ "Svea Josephy: Michaelis School of Fine Art".
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