50 Visions of Family
The 35mm Film Sketches of South African Lens-Based Artist Sharday Swanepoel
Sharday Swanepoel (b.1986) is a self-taught lens-based artist living in Kommetjie, South Africa.
With a degree in Architectural Studies, her affinity for sculpting with light soon lead her to pick up the camera. As a mother of four, photography became a means of documenting and preserving her own stories. Swanepoel’s work is an introspective exploration of social issues, personal identity, and domesticity in South Africa. Through her works, she explores the concepts of memory. The work has a tone of melancholy: “this too shall pass” a prolific notion fed to woman experiencing the difficulties of mothering. The pictures are made using a combination of digital and analogue photography, reminiscent of the family photo album.