Resourceful teenager capitalises on docu-photos
Dumisani Ncube | Tuesday July 25, 2017 15:34
At such a young age Tembo has already worked on two documentary photography projects, Colourism: Shades of Africa, which focused on people of different races uniting released in 2016 and Man Up: A Boy’s Battle for Male Sensitivity, which focused on challenges that boys face when growing up into men, released this year. “I believe that photography in general is a way of telling a story once someone has captured a picture.
As for me I focus on social matters that take place in the community telling stories in different series of pictures that I package into a project,” Tembo said. She stated that documentary photography is powerful as it can change the way a certain subject is perceived by the society.
Through her craft Tembo noted that she wants to tell various social issues taking place in the community as she has already started doing so. She ventured into documentary photography after being groomed by renowned photojournalist, Maitham Basha-Agha who has showcased most of his work through social media notably on the People of Southern Africa Facebook page.
“I developed love for photography when I was 15, which led me to taking pictures of various subjects. When my skill was perfect I was into commercial photography, but I felt I need to grow more.
This is when I approached Basha-Agha to give me guidance on documentary photography.” When documenting Tembo works with a writer that works on a script once she has assembled her documentary photography in the chronological order.
She claims that during the mentorship period she learnt a lot, which led to her taking the craft seriously. “Prior to working on a project I first go though some research, reading books and newspapers on the subject that I want to work on so I do not have distorted influence on my work,” she said.
To grow her photographic expertise she enrolled at a tertiary institution in Cape Town, South Africa where she has attained more knowledge. She got accepted at the institution immediately after completing secondary school. Talking of why she chose to focus on social matters Tembo said a lot of these issues leave people with low self-esteem and diminished confidence, but through her work she has hope to lift their spirits.
Tembo, who is currently in the country working on a documentary photography project, which is part of her school assignment, stated that as a photographer one should know their value as she has noticed that locally photographers are being taken for granted and are expected to give away their services for a song.
Tembo’s documentary photographic works can be accessed on social media plarforms such as Facebook. Some of her work has been featured on international publications such as Afro Punk.