Artist Statement

In the summer of 2023, I found myself on the other side of the world in Cape Town, South Africa, working for an NGO called the Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE). For three months (from May 5 – August 3), I worked as a Photography/Videography Intern. This exhibition showcases the various initiatives I documented, some of the people I met, and the stories I heard.

Throughout my undergrad at Vancouver Island University (VIU), I always returned to the idea of going abroad to work for an NGO. My background is in both Global Studies and Visual Arts, and they work to inform one another. Global Studies has provided a foundation of knowledge for understanding diverse perspectives and solutions to global problems, while I believe tools in visual communication help to build that bridge required in creating connections and enabling change. An internship would allow me to apply the concepts I believed in and the skills I learned throughout my degree to a real-world experience. To get out on the ground with organizations making a difference and work alongside them.

TCOE is an organization with a mission to bring about change. They envision a transformed land and agrarian sector in South Africa with concrete alternatives for sustainable livelihoods and democratized governance, where rural people have a voice and agency to protect the commons and their rights. TCOE focuses on the themes of food sovereignty, movement building, and rural democratization, discussed throughout the exhibition. TCOE also works with the Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA), which strives to strengthen the self-organization of rural women involved in the defense of the land, seeds, water, and the environment. The purpose of my role was to promote my organization’s mission of raising awareness of the rights of poor rural peoples and their operations through visual engagement.

The title of this exhibition was inspired by RWA. Their motto is “We are the Guardians of Land, Life, Seeds and Love”. The people I met and worked with truly embodied this phrase. They are stewards of the land, working hard to not only protect their communities but the land that provides them their livelihoods. The land and its people are inextricably intertwined.

Within this exhibition, various TCOE initiatives present a window into the people, places, and livelihoods in South Africa. Farms are showcased in their vividity and burst with life; landscapes are mountainous and rich in colour; and the people hold unique stories within their gaze. Written details provide context to the photographs.

One of the most meaningful lessons from my experience was expressed in a simple comment made by a comrade of mine, Joe, during a work trip in Eastern Cape. A long-time activist himself, he said to me that sometimes activist work is simply about making those small contributions within your community in any way that you can. A modest but weighted statement, this concept stuck with me for the remainder of my internship and gave me the courage to turn my work for TCOE into a photodocumentary exhibition.

My hope with this exhibition is that I can make a small contribution in the only way I know how – through visual storytelling – so that viewers might also have the opportunity to be immersed, inspired, and moved by the people, places, and culture of South Africa, just as I was.

Kashmir Lesnick-Petrovicz