“Can you see me?”

Sabelo asks, adjusting his phone for our conversation, his voice echoing in the backrooms of Umhlabathi Collective in Newtown - an artist-led space Mlangeni formed in 2020 with seven other prominent South African photographers. It is also currently the home of his latest solo exhibition, Ngiyobona Phambili, his first Johannesburg show in over six years.

“I feel relieved honestly.” He begins, on the exhibition’s arrival on the continent, “The work that we put together…it was intense. But it’s work that, for quite some time, I’ve wanted to see the light.” He mentions how there was an initial mixed reaction when showing the photographs to friends during the development phase, “No, no Sabelo! This is not House of Allure. This is not Country Girls.” He jokingly says. “There was an expectation, but I’m happy with the final presentation.”

Born in 1980, in Driefontein, a village near Wakkerstroom in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The award-winning South African photographer, Sabelo Mlangeni, is a force. His journey began in 2001, when he moved to Johannesburg and attended the Market Photo Workshop, an institution established in 1989 by renowned photographer, David Goldblatt. In 2006, he premiered Invisible Women - a body of work that documented the women who sweep the streets of Johannesburg at night, it addressed the challenges they faced working in the darkness of such a volatile and sometimes violent city.

“Someone once said, ‘no other place produces as many photographers as Johannesburg. There used to be only a few places for young people to show work, we are seeing more collectives filling in the gaps and providing spaces for photographers to exhibit.” Sabelo says. His career, spanning over twenty years, has provided us with dynamic and nuanced reflections of the human experience. Mlangeni shares how photography has shaped his life and the way he experiences the world. 

At the core of Sabelo Mlangeni’s practice is the importance of establishing connections,“Each work requires a different approach, you have to talk to people. When I was working on Men Only, it took over a year before I picked up the camera. In the moments between conversations, I would introduce the camera to them, then progress from there.” 

This aforementioned work, Men Only, which was completed in 2009, focuses on a mens-only hostel where Mlangeni documented the everyday life of its occupants. Often photography is mistakenly considered to be a mirror of reality. Instead, the subjectivity and agenda of the person behind the lens is the defining element. Building relationships is what allows the artist to understand who they are making work about, as to not misrepresent a group of people - this is especially important when photographing those who may exist in the peripheries of society, devoid of a public platform to control their own narrative. Therefore, the thinking artist becomes a bridge for their participants to define themselves.

One of his most notable works, Country Girls explores the ‘grit and glamour’ of gay life in Mpumalanga’s countryside. Taken over several years, the body of work reveals the intimacies and joy of community, and provides an extensive visual contribution to the burgeoning studies of gender and sexuality in Southern Africa, beyond academia.

Mlangeni’s bodies of work take years to complete, as he understands the value of patience and familiarity when image-making. “You are able to capture moments that you wouldn’t have easily seen if you were an in-and-out. The people you are photographing are not suspicious of you, because you’ve become a part of the community.”

When he started out making photographs, with every project there would be people questioning the focus of his work, “They ask, ‘why these people? Why choose to make work about them?’ But honestly, the work chooses me. Now understanding the potential violence of the lens, I get why people would ask that. I believe in intimacy, I can achieve it when I begin with communities I am part of.” He says.

If you stitch them together, Sabelo’s works reveal themselves to be a massive self portrait, finding a way to speak on global concerns such as identity, belonging and love, he is also offering pieces of himself. Interested in the ephemeral world of healers, prophets and prophetesses, he began to look. After a seer told him about an ancestral spirit that had a ‘gift’ for him, his curiosity was piqued. He was advised that every time the spirit was ready to give him this luck, he was always at the wrong place and unable to receive. His curiosity continued and would eventually manifest into Umlindelo wamaKholwa - exploring community, faith and the waiting.

The title of the project is in isiZulu, and is one of those phrases where the translation never quite expresses the essence. It’s like stretching your mother’s tongue and telling her to speak, you will never hear the words clearly. Nevertheless, when translated ‘Umlindelo wamaKholwa’, means the ‘waiting of believers’, essentially as a Believer, the true glory exists in the meeting with God, the waiting refers to the life lived on Earth, awaiting re-uniting with the Divine at heaven's gate.

“With Umlindelo, it happened at the same time as my introduction to photography. I’ve always been part of the church…since ‘97, until now.” He proceeds to speak on the negotiation of the documentary photographer, “I asked myself, ‘how do I negotiate making a photograph of a family in Alex, and take it to a gallery to be sold for however much?’ You know…it’s a constant question. The church became a way for me to give back, at the end of the day, people are letting you into their homes and into their hearts.”

At first glance, Sabelo Mlangeni’s work over the last two decades may seem scattered with diverse concerns, “I don’t want to be boxed or known for one style of work.” However, if you were to follow the threads binding the work, they all lead back to him. With an unwavering intensity and sensibility, he is telling a story, not as an outsider but as a part of the whole.