Sipho Mpongo

Sipho Mpongo's (b. 1993, Eastern Cape) photographic journey began with IIiso Labantu, a local mentorship program, which propelled him into his career. Mpongo completed a full-time course at The Cape Town School of Photography. In 2014, he embarked on a four-month tour around South Africa with photographers Wikus de Wet and Sean Meterlerkamp, as part of the Twenty Journey project, documenting the "Born Free Generation" 20 years after apartheid.

A member of the lliso Labantu photography collective, Mpongo is currently studying at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town. In 2015, the Magnum Foundation recognized Mpongo as one of their Human Rights Fellows, providing scholarships and training for photographers from the Global South. Through this fellowship, he attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in New York City, where he developed strategies for creating powerful visual stories to advance human rights.