Njabulo Hlophe is a visual storyteller born and raised in Johannesburg currently studying at the Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography. Having been raised in Soweto and the Johannesburg inner city Njabulo was exposed to a lot of scenes that are familiar with the South African black experience: images of pollution, poverty, sickness and violence as a result of living in a country that still has a very bad shortage of basic facilities in these communities. But with that, he was also exposed to the resilience that is characteristic of black people especially the people in the areas I grew up in. Absorbing the visual language of the inner city and learning how the city and its inhabitants are still, in the midst of intense lack, able to breakthrough and live their lives with joy and a sense of community that has been cultivated by years of shared trauma, in this community Njabulo was exposed to the power of being able to look beyond your circumstances and writing your own story when given very little choice.
