Photo Credit: Amr Alfiky
Gulshan Khan is an independent South African photographer based in Johannesburg.
Her work is focused on stories related to social justice, identity, human rights, transition and belonging and the dignity of people; the multi-layered effects of everything from access to water and sanitation, safe housing, equal education and healthcare, gender based violence to plastic pollution, climate change and migration. These are themes which continue to direct her visual reflections of the human condition and the world around her.
A stringer for Agence France Presse (AFP), she was the first African woman to be hired by the agency in 2017. She has published in the The New York Times, The Washington Post, New Frame, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Le Monde, The Financial Times, El Pais, The Wall Street Journal, among others. Gulshan has worked with various NGO’s including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the African Women's Development Fund.
In 2018, she was one of six photographers selected for the World Press Photo 6x6 Talent Program, Africa Edition, and was a 2019 Joop Swart Nominee. In 2016, Gulshan completed the Market Photo Workshop Photojournalism and Documentary Photography Program in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is a National Geographic Explorer, a member of the World Press Photo's African Photojournalism Database (APJD), Native and Women Photograph and is an Everyday Africa contributor.
Gulshan’s work has been exhibited around the world and she has had the honour of speaking at a host of institutions and events including the World Press Photo Festival 2019 and the National Geographic Storytellers Summit 2020. She sometimes teaches at her alumnus, the Market Photo Workshop.
While working on multiple projects, Gulshan has slowly been developing a long term project about her community of contemporary Muslims in South Africa. This personal documentation aims to engage with ideas of how faith is something that we carry with us even when we cannot carry anything else. It speaks to ideas of (re-)establishment of communities around acts and spaces of worship and prayer, and the transformations of physical and social landscapes through faith, with a special interest in the perspective of women.
The project also aims at remedying the historical lack of visual representation that such communities suffered, due to the dislocation and erasure cause by colonisation and apartheid in Africa and aims to be something that generations to come can look upon as a source of history and memory.
EXHIBITIONS
September 21 - 28 2019 - Say Shukran - Casa dei Diritti - Milan, Italy
April 19 - May 26 2019 - Bronx Documentary Centre - Transitions: South Africa New York City
April - May 2019 - Photoville L.A. - MFON: Alter Prayer, Ritual and Offerings Los Angeles
04 October 2018 - April 2019 - Not the usual suspects - Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
11-14 October 2018 - Johannesburg Art Gallery, Art Market Budapest, Budapest
12 October 2018 - 16 November - Unstill Life, Photo Kathmandu
29 Sept - 28 October 2018 - World Press Photo 6x6 Talent Africa Exhibition, Kutching, Malaysia
18 Sept - 24 October 2018 - “Foreseen: New Narratives from the African Photojournalism Database” - Nuku Photo Festival, Ghana
13 Sept - 23 Sept 2018 - Photoville NYC - Forseen: New Narratives APJD , New York City
13 Sept - 23 Sept 2018 - Photoville NYC MFON: Alter Prayer, Ritual and Offerings , New York City
20 June - 24 June 2018 ‘Foreseen' World Press Photo / APJD - LUMIX - Festival for young Photojournalism
05 May - 09 September 2018 - "A U F B R U C H" - Liebenroder Kultur Ambulanz LKA, Liebende Germany
November 2017 - [CROP] Project (Creative Resistance & Open Processes) , Johannesburg
26 August 2016 - Woke - Wits Theatre, Decolonising Feminism Conference, Johannesburg
27 August 2016 - Woke - Goethe-Institut. Part of the Grada Kilomba artist talk, Johannesburg
PRESS
20 Rising Female Photojournalists - Artsy
2018 Top 100 Photos - From the Editors of Time
The Washington Post - Voices of African Photography: At the intersection of identity power and belonging
World Press Photo Witness - Four to Follow #1
TALKS, WORKSHOPS & REVIEWS
15 January 2020 - National Geographic Storytellers Summit, Speaker, Washington DC, USA
14 September 2019 - Women in Photojournalism, Panelist, The Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg, South Africa.
13 April 2019 - "The Impact of a Story on an Individual", Presenter and panelist, World Press Photo Festival, Amsterdam
30 March 2019 - New York Times Portfolio Review, Attendee, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York
28 March 2019 - Blink Connect Portfolio Review, Attendee, NYC
25 - 30 January 2019 - IWMF Women's Media Leadership Bootcamp, Attendee, Naivasha, Kenya
January 2019 - National Geographic Women Photographers Seminar Saturday, Attendee, Washington DC
January 2019 - National Geographic Seminar and Storytelling Summit Attendee, Washington DC
07 December 2018 - Roshnee Photo Club, Speaker, Johannesburg
22 November 2018 - Debating the role of photojournalism from South Africa to Zimbabwe, Panelist, The Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg South Africa
08 November 2018 - Speaker - African Studies Palaver, Department of African Studies, Centre for African Studies, Howard University, Washington DC
03 November 2018 - Runner up at Lagos Photos / National Geographic portfolio Review, Lagos, Nigeria.
22-23 September, 2018 - Women Photograph Workshop and Portfolio Review at Photoville, Attendee, New York City