The Market Photo Workshop (MPW) is thrilled to present “Lives, Voices, Struggle”, a group exhibition from MPW’s archives celebrating Human Rights Month and honouring photographers whose work reminds us of the ongoing responsibility to uphold and protect the rights of all people.
The exhibition opens on Saturday, 7 March 2026 from 11h00 – 14h00 at The Photo Workshop Gallery and Gallery 1989 in Newtown with a conversation between Andrew Tshabangu and Professor Thembinkosi Goniwe.
Curated by Bandile Gumbi and Loyiso Oldjohn, the exhibition covers vast ground, zooming into land, migration, women, LGBTQIA+ rights as well as youth development. From homes to workplaces, women, LGBTQI+ people, persons with disabilities and other marginalised communities negotiate power and possibility in daily life. Their stories reflect courage, vulnerability and collective strength.
At the heart of the exhibition is a call for human rights to not just be spoken about during moments of crisis, protest or violation, as they are lived most fully in ordinary, everyday life. Across South Africa, people navigate work, family, faith, friendship, care and community under complex social and economic conditions. It is in these daily practices that dignity, equality, resilience and belonging are continually negotiated.
For that reason, “Lives, Voices, Struggle” explores human rights not only as legal guarantees, but as lived experiences shaped by imagination, memory, culture and struggle.
Bandile Gumbi, Head of The Market Photo Workshop, emphasises the role of photography and visual storytelling in advocating for a just society centred around human rights. “The Market Photo Workshop,” she states, “is a communal hub for the photography community. This exhibition affirms photography’s power to honour dignity, amplify voices, and deepen our shared responsibility to one another. Through personal stories, photographs, multimedia and community knowledge, the exhibition reveals how Africans live, contest and remake human rights in both ordinary and extraordinary ways. Activism and resistance are presented with context, care and humanity.”
As South Africa marks 50 years since the tragedy of June 16, 1976, the exhibition foregrounds how young people actively imagine and build their futures amid inequality, digital transformation and global uncertainty—in the process posing questions about the promise of a better life for all. Again, it highlights informal economies and everyday livelihoods that sustain households and communities.
Amid raging debate about immigrants, this exhibition also presents movement as central in shaping life in Southern Africa. People move for various reasons, within and across borders. Therefore, here migration is presented as a human experience rather than a crisis narrative.
Finally, the exhibition explores land as more than territory: as memory, livelihood, identity and responsibility through stories of stewardship, struggle and adaptation, reminding us that environmental justice is inseparable from human dignity.
Greg Homann, Artistic Director of The Market Theatre Foundation, echoes the significance of this group exhibition, as it falls within the crucial 50th year of The Market Theatre. “This exhibition is timed to provoke sobering reflections about human rights in a world where there seemingly appears to be an attempt to revoke hard won rights. Here, photography can be revisited as a powerful tool for storytelling and remembering. For a large part of The Market Theatre’s history, The Market Photo Workshop has complemented its fearless theatrical programming with its own bold curation aimed at equally confronting injustices and telling ordinary people’s stories.”
Join the conversation with Andrew Tshabangu and Professor Thembinkosi Goniwe at the opening of “Lives, Voices, Struggle” on Saturday, 7 March 2026 from 11h00 – 14h00 at The Photo Workshop Gallery and Gallery 1989 in Newtown, or visit the exhibition daily (Monday to Friday) from 7 March until 14 March 2026.
ENDS
The Market Photo Workshop is a Division of The Market Theatre Foundation, an agency of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.
For more information, please contact Bekie Ntini (Manager: Training and Public Engagement Programming) at bekien@marketphotoworkshop.co.za or 011 834 1444.
For media enquiries, please contact Bongiwe Potelwa (Publicist at The Market Theatre Foundation) at bongiwep@markettheatre.co.za or (011) 832 1641.