Fundiswa Ntoyi’s photographs portray emotion so vividly and each image becomes a translation of a South African story, writes Melissa van Rooyen.
Manifesting out of the fundamental human desire to document, archive and celebrate our own existence, portraiture has been around since the beginnings of civilisation. First taking shape through paintings, drawings and sculpture, early portraits focused on telling the stories of nobles, royals and religious figures – revealing that our obsession with status reaches far back into history.
With the development of photography, however, the traditional definition of the portrait changed from a nearly exclusive experience for the powerful and those they commissioned to a medium that captures everyday human lives and emotions. Telling such stories is young Bloemfontein-born and Cape Town-based photographer Fundiswa Ntoyi.
In the 21st century it is far from uncommon to use photography, and specifically portraiture, to document the everyday, but what makes Ntoyi’s portraits captivating is the emotional connection she orchestrates between her subjects and the viewers. Her work is not simply focused on photographing ordinary people beautifully, but rather she works to capture the emotions and the stories behind their faces.
Intrigued by faces from a young age, Ntoyi’s fascination with portraiture began with drawing portraits from photographs taken by other photographers and noticing that there is an art behind an interesting image. This epiphany inspired her to start photographing her own portraits from which she could draw and, being a proactive millennial, she taught herself the ins and outs of photography.
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This article is adapted from an interview that appeared on the creative showcase site between10and5
For full report via Mail & Guardian
