The Market Photo Workshop, with the Tierney Family Foundation, Michaelis School of Fine Art and Wits School of Arts, announces Onkemetse Lekone as the 19th Tierney Fellow. Lekone is a Johannesburg-based multidisciplinary artist, documentary photographer, and visual storyteller currently enrolled in the Photojournalism and Documentary Photography Programme at the Market Photo Workshop. She will be mentored by renowned South African photographer, Andrew Tshabangu.

Her practice is rooted in long-term documentary projects that explore themes of identity, belonging, and community, with a particular focus on the relationships between people, place, and memory.

Onkemetse reflected on being selected as a Tierney Fellow, “I am deeply honoured to be named a recipient of the Tierney Fellowship. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to my school and The Tierney Family Foundation for this incredible opportunity and for their continued investment in photographers and visual storytellers. Receiving this fellowship is both an affirmation of my photography work and an encouragement to continue exploring community stories. It offers the support to deepen my artistic development, challenge myself creatively, and grow as both a photographer and a storyteller. I look forward to engaging with the fellowship, learning from Ntate Andrew Tshabangu and fellow photographers around me, and contributing meaningfully to the legacy of the Tierney Fellowship. I hope the work I create at Bekezela informal settlement during this time will spark dialogue, foster understanding, and honour the people and experiences that inspire my work.”

The Market Photo Workshop is a Division of The Market Theatre Foundation, an agency of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.

For media enquiries and interviews, please contact Bongiwe Potelwa (Publicist at The Market Theatre Foundation) at bongiwep@markettheatre.co.za or 011 832 1641.

For more information about programmes offered at MPW, please contact Bekie Ntini (Manager: Training and Public Engagement Programming) at bekien@marketphotoworkshop.co.za or 011 834 1444.

About the Market Photo Workshop
The Market Photo Workshop is a Johannesburg-based school of photography, gallery and resource centre for practicing photographers. Since its establishment in 1989, the school has played an integral role in the training and growth of photographers from South Africa and further afield, while promoting photography through exhibitions

Market Photo Workshop

c/o Market Square

138 Lilian Ngoyi St

Entrance at Margaret Macingana Street
Newtown
Johannesburg

Bongiwe Potelwa
bongiwep@markettheatre.co.za
079 967 3441
The Market Theatre Foundation
https://marketphotoworkshop.co.za