Hoek Swaratlhe

Hoek Swaratlhe is a South African photographer and visual based in Soweto, Johannesburg. His themes centre around his community, its urban culture and the history that informs its socio-political landscape. Swaratlhe ‘s career began in commercial photography, he has worked with Johann Barnard, Francois Booyens and others. He was head of Photography at Basement in The Arts and Sound Visual, a recording label. He spent two- years as artist in resident in the Kopanong Art Studio Residency Program at Pretoria Arts Museum from 2015 and completed the Advanced Program in Photography (APP) in 2018. He has photographed for the Market Theatre Foundation, Lampost and Netflix.

Swaratlhe recently won the 1st prize in the 3rd annual Umsizi Nopende Award (2024) and had his first solo exhibition 4Dladla (2022) as part of the Media and Advocacy Photography Mentorship. Group exhibitions include In Process (2022) as part of The Incubator Mentorship Program at The Market Photo Workshop, the FUJIFILM showcase ‘Take Ten’ in 2022. He is a member of Occupying the Gallery; the project aims to transform gallery spaces into makeshift open studios for mentorship and artistic development and was a part of the group exhibition ‘Bazobuya’ 2024 curated by Lawrence Lemaoana, at the KZNSA Gallery in Durban, South Africa.