The anthology of photographs in Fashion_The Image: African Fashion Photography in Focus, is the first ever showcase of African fashion photography in Johannesburg. Editorial spreads, campaign imagery, fashion films and experimental collaborations from over 60 photographers and designers present a story of how they collectively shape the visual landscape of South African fashion, manifesting utopias, creating visions and expanding technologies.
Fashion _ The Image is curated by fashion director Sharon Armstrong in partnership with editor and writer Aspasia Karras, and in collaboration with decolonial fashion researcher and academic Dr Erica de Greef and Ayabukwa Magocoba from the African Fashion Research Institute.
Shown at this scale, and viewed together, the works at Fashion_The Image offer a lens into the complex, layered poetics of being, where intimacy, love, beauty, surprise, creativity, desire and dreams emerge.
In addition, the exhibition brings the first retrospective in South Africa of Lesotho-born, internationally renowned photographer, Koto Bolofo whose pioneering and innovative work continues to lead and inspire. His images perform at the nexus of design and photography. They present, invite and invoke what is to become; of what is imagined as possible; of a chimera of (our)selves; of spaces of belonging and becoming; and of kinships with nature and other worlds, shifting between portal, blueprint and dreamscape.
The photograph is never merely seen; it is watched, heard, and felt — an intimate space where memory and the possibilities of being converge. Photo: Koto Bolofo
Other participating photographers and filmmakers include Pieter Hugo, Kevin Mackintosh, Nadine Ijewere, Nontsikelelo Veleko, Kristin-Lee Moolman, Nico Krinjo, Aart Verrips, Tatenda Chidora and Andile Buka.
- Feature image: Model Desire Marea wears a red, pink and orange splattered satin tailored jacket by designer Nao Serati. Photo: Tatenda Chidora
- The exhibition opens February 28, 2026 – May 31, 2026 at the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography & Inside Out Foundation.
- For more information visit insideoutfoundation.co.za
