Sihle Khambule (5), 2009

Coinciding with “Platform Africa”, Aperture is pleased to present a series of limited-edition prints by artists featured in the issue. Musa N. Nxumalo’s work dives deep into black alternative youth culture in Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city. His exuberant nightlife images carry energy and enthusiasm that can only be shown by someone who is living, growing, and discovering themselves in that same world. Nxumalo’s photographs, showing his peers’ fashion choices and the music they listen to, work to challenge prevailing social and racial stereotypes within South African culture and give voice to discontented youth within his community who are trying to express themselves freely. “Because racism is a form of grave stupidity,” he says, “my work intends to dispel these tendencies anywhere in the world where the work can reach.”

Archival Pigment on Baryta Paper
Paper Size: 34 1/5 x 22 inches
Image Size: 32 x 22 inches
Edition of 6 and 2 Artist’s Proofs
Signed and numbered by the artist

Musa N. Nxumalo (b. 1986, Soweto, South Africa) received his introduction to photography at the Market Photo Workshop with Sabelo Mlangeni and the late Thabiso Sekgala, who together are often associated with the new generation of contemporary South African photographers. In the period between 2008 and 2016, Nxumalo produced two bodies of work for which he has received critical recognition – Alternative Kidz (2009) and In/Glorious (2012), which later formed part of his 2015 solo exhibition, In Search Of… at SMAC Gallery in Stellenbosch and the Goethe Institute in Johannesburg. Nxumalo is currently working on an ongoing project, titled The Anthology of Youth (2016), which was shown in part at SMAC Gallery’s Contemporary Booth at the FNB Joburg Art Fair 2016 and in UPSTART/STARTUP at SMAC Gallery in Johannesburg. Nxumalo recently exhibited 16 Shots, a selection from The Anthology of Youth at SMAC Gallery in Johannesburg.