A self-starter hooked on telling stories in pictures

SA photographer scoops prestigious award in US, writes Isaac Mahlangu

IMAGINE winning an award that carries the name of your hero. That is what has photographer Lungelo Mbulwana walking on cloud nine.

The 31-year-old has just returned from New York, where he scooped top honours at the Eddie Adams photographic workshop - an annual event that draws 100 student photographers from around the world.

The workshop is named after the legendary Adams, a war photographer who covered 13 conflicts, including Vietnam, where he shot a close-range picture of an execution in Saigon in 1968 for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Adams died aged 71 in 2004.

"He wasn't just a photographer; he was a storyteller. He lived pictures," said Mbulwana.

Originally from Goqwana, a rural village in the Eastern Cape, he was selected as one of this year's batch of student photographers, thanks to a remarkable portfolio that captured the lives of poor women on the West Rand who daily dig up coal for use in their homes because they do not have electricity.

This year, some participants, including Mbulwana's group, were required to present a photographic documentary on the history of the Eddie Adams workshop, which turned 25 this year. The judging panel, which included picture editors of major New York publications, selected Mbulwana's work as the best. "I was so emotional and very excited at the same time when it was announced that I had won," he said.

Mbulwana, an intern at the SABC, said his interest in photography began at the age 14, when his father, Patrick Zweni, gave him his first camera.

He was soon hooked on telling stories in pictures.

Although his father needed the camera back after a year, Mbulwana said that, by then, he had earned enough money taking pictures at parties and weddings to buy himself a single-lens reflex camera.

He later signed up for professional training at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg.

"I want to do more documentary stories and run a photographic academy in rural areas," he said, adding that he believed there were many talented children in these areas who just did not have the opportunities.

He said that, other than Adams, his favourite photographers include City Press lensman Leon Sadiki and Sam Nzima, who took the famous image of Hector Pieterson during the Soweto uprising.

"I love Nzima's work, as it shows that he understood the society he was living in. We need pictures that tell the good and bad side of us."

Bekie Ntini, the coordinator of mentorships and training at the Market Photo Workshop, is not surprised at Mbulwana's achievement.

"Lungelo's vital achievement in New York is a clear indication that hard work pays - and is a strong motivation for emerging photographers," he said. "He is a hard-working self-starter who understands photojournalism and documentary photography."