Sandy beach bodies of boys from Mozambique, a portrait of a street-urbane young black man backing the camera, and a skinny dipping woman dancing underwater are some of the intriguing works that make a showing in the mesmerizing collection of works from five of the most exciting photographers ushering the contemporary African photography universe this summer.

This collection of works for the new print sales exhibition happening at the Photographers’ Gallery in London features works from five artists active in Mozambique, South Africa, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The exhibition is titled Presence: Five Contemporary African Photographers, and it is a collaboration between The Photographers’ Gallery and The Photographic Collective, a not-for-profit enterprise that aims to bring visibility to lesser-known artists living and working in Africa, especially those without gallery representation.

On the emergence and rising profile of African art and artists, Anthony Hartley, the director of the gallery, points out that this is the London gallery’s first dedicated show on contemporary African photography. He attributes the lack of visibility to the deficiency of a structured framework for African artists to promote their work. But now, dedicated platforms for African artists to showcase their works to a global audience in the form of African art-exclusive online gallery aggregator and marketplace, Aworanka, and The Photographic Collective, are gradually filling that space. For Hartley, the fact that the lack of an international presence for African artists is being remedied now is a welcome development.

The works on display encompass themes of social commentary, class divide, urbanization and street culture, environmental preservation and sustainability, sensuality, and surrealism through portraiture, landscape, street photography, and abstraction. The five photographers in the exhibition are Nonzuzo Gxekwa and Anke Loots from South Africa, Mário Macilau and Amilton Neves Cuna from Mozambique, and Léonard Pongo from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They are all under 40 artists whose works draw heavily from the spaces and people around them and showcase diverse approaches to photography within an African context, offering a vivid insight into the wide range of practices, inquiries, and key narratives shaping contemporary African photography.

Mozambican artist Amilton Neves Cuna, 33, uses his camera to illuminate life among the squatter community living in Beira’s crumbling Grand Hotel, an iconic Art Deco complex that was turned into a military base during the Mozambican Civil War, then abandoned and transformed into an informal camp in the 1980s. 

South African artist Anke Loots, 31, creates street photography and portraiture to capture the people and landscapes she encounters on her travels around the world. “The resulting images reflect on the impermanence of human existence, often in intimate, surrealist and meditative ways,” the website of the Photographers’ Gallery says.

Léonard Pongo, 33, from the DRC, reimagines his country from a point of view away from the singular crises-laden depictions in popular media. His works focus on celebrating people’s joy and dreams and rendering the diversity of landscapes in the DRC through allegorical representations.

Mozambique’s Mário Macilau, 37, documents the streets and shoreline of Maputo through monochromatic lenses. His ‘Growing in Darkness’ series features intimate portraits of the children of marginalized communities and their reality.

South Africa’s Nonzuzo Gxekwa’s figurative works explore the human condition in subtle and beautiful ways, whether on the street or in the studio. She often revisits and reinterprets traditional ways of dressing and presenting oneself to the world.

All of the artists are “questioning the way photography is working in Africa and trying to create something a little bit different,” Julie Bonzon, head of photographs at Messums Gallery, who is the exhibition’s guest curator, says. According to the exhibition's website, it was Bonzon who founded The Photographic Collective during the Covid-19 lockdown last year.

The contemporary African photography sales exhibition runs for most of the summer, from July 1 to August 28.