Awarded for his moving photobook, Sobekwa turns personal loss into a powerful reflection on memory, grief, and the enduring fractures of South Africa.
(left) Lindokuhle Sobekwa; (right) Detail from I Carry Her Photo With Me, 2024. Published by MACK.
Lindokuhle Sobekwa has been announced as the winner of the prestigious £30,000 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2025. The award was presented on Thursday, 15 May 2025, at The Photographers’ Gallery in London.
Sobekwa received the prize for his photobook I Carry Her Photo with Me, published by MACK in 2024. His deeply personal work explores themes of memory, loss, and family, and has been widely acclaimed for its emotional depth and narrative power.
The influential prize—presented annually in partnership with The Photographers’ Gallery—honours artists whose projects are deemed to have made the most significant contribution to international contemporary photography over the past 12 months.
Lindokuhle Sobekwa (b. 1995, South Africa) was introduced to photography in 2012 through the Of Soul and Joy Project in Buhlebuzile high school in Thokoza township. His photography mentors there included Bieke Depoorter, Cyprien Clement Delmas, Thabiso Sekgala, Tjorven Bruyneel and Kutlwano Moagi. In 2013 Sobekwa joined Live Magazine as a part-time photographer. He has exhibited work at Kalashnikow Gallery in South Africa and with No Man’s Art Gallery in the Netherlands and in their pop-up exhibitions in South Africa, Iran, and Norway. In the past year his work has been shown internationally at Paris Photo by both Goodman Gallery and Magnin-A gallery. Sobekwa joined Magnum Photos in 2018 and became a full member in 2022. He has undertaken assignments in Kenya and South Africa, as well as giving lectures about his work and photography in South Africa internationally.
I Carry Her Photo with Me is a deeply personal project and began when Sobekwa discovered a family portrait in which his older sister Ziyanda’s face had been cut out. It remains the only photograph he has of her. When Sobekwa was seven and Ziyanda thirteen, a tragic incident occurred: she chased him playfully into the street, where he was struck by a car and severely injured. Just hours later, she disappeared. A decade passed before she reappeared—seriously ill. By then, Sobekwa had become a photographer. He attempted to take her portrait, but stopped when she reacted with anger. Ziyanda died soon after.
I Carry Her Photo with Me weaves together photographs, handwritten notes, and family snapshots. Presented in a scrapbook-like format, the book reflects on the memory of his sister while also speaking to the broader implications of disappearance—a haunting and recurrent aspect of South Africa’s history. The work is part of Sobekwa’s ongoing practice, which addresses themes of fragmentation, poverty, and the lasting effects of apartheid and colonialism across all layers of South African society.
Lindokuhle Sobekwa, I carry Her photo with Me, 2024. Courtesy of the artist.
The four international artists shortlisted for the 2025 Prize were: Cristina De Middel, Rahim Fortune, Tarrah Krajnak, and Lindokuhle Sobekwa.
The shortlisted projects span a broad range of photographic approaches, including documentary, constructed imagery, self-portraiture, performance, and the use of family archives. Together, they address themes such as migration, community and belonging, intergenerational traditions and rituals, as well as personal and collective memory.
The annual exhibition featuring the shortlisted projects is on view at The Photographers’ Gallery, London, from 7 March to 15 June 2025.
This years jury are: Anne-Marie Beckmann (Director, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation), Gwen Lee (Co-founder, Singapore International Photography Festival & Director, DECK Photography Art Centre), Dana Lixenberg (Dutch photographer and former nominee), Aron Mörel (Publisher, Mörel Books, UK), and Shoair Mavlian (Director, The Photographers’ Gallery) as voting chair.
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