MUSA NXUMALO is a 24 year old South African photographer. Born in Soweto, Musa is currently based in Johannesburg where he completed his photography program at the Market Photo Workshop 2006-2008. He is also the recipient of the Edward Ruiz Mentorship Award 2008. His work to date include the
Alternative Kidz (2009), a solo exhibition part of a Side gallery project in Woodstock, Cape Town,
and
Us (2010), a group exhibition at the Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
The Workshop holds a special space for photographers in South Africa, having nurtured talents such as the innovative street-style photographer Nontsikelelo Veleko who went on to be project manager/coordinator and whose exhibition
Beauty Is In The Eyes of the Beholder has toured the world and received critical acclaim, and Vathiswa Ruselo, first recipient of the Edward Ruiz Mentorship 2005.
MUSA NXUMALO | The Interview
ALTERNATIVE KIDZ
How did you start?
I think this is it...this is the start for me. I am looking forward to doing great things in the future, and like every determined kid in my generation, I found a passion and stuck to it and right now I am giving it my full energy to work through the contradictions of my history and where I come from.
Your experiences thus far?
I've got two lives! Home life is a different world to the photography world. The idea of having to switch personalities, behavior and even the way i walk! freaks me out sometimes, and makes me wonder about the impact or the convergence point of my passion and my home life.
Are you interested in a particular kind of photography?
I would not say that I am drawn to one kind, however there are things I am note inclined to photographing, and some pictures that I cannot bear to look at! I always want to see something that moves me, something I have not seen before - a play, romance, imagination, etc. I think if there's a kind of photography that has all of these, then that's the one. At the moment, I find it in various people's work.
Do you have a mentor?
At the moment, no. I work alone. I do have people that I consult now and then for guidance and assistance.
Finally, what excites you as a young photographer in South Africa?
I can talk from a Soweto and Johannesburg point of view simply because I have not explored the rest of the country, though I plan to.
I think there's a lot that doesn't excite me, which is why when I see something great I photograph it. Unfortunately, local magazines which featured great local and international photographers are no longer easily accessible in Soweto, so when I'm in need of a particular book or publication I go to Rosebank.
At the same time, it feels good to to be able to lock my self in to see documentaries such as The Night James Brown Saved Boston and Joy Division.
I am interested in exploring the constant flux of urban youth culture at this particular juncture of our history, primarily within black communities. My photography hopes to develop a documentation of the first generation of a democratic South Africa, how we are practising this freedom and what it means to us.
To view the rest of his Alternative Kidz exhibition, and other works, visit:
WWW.MUSANXUMALO.COM 
