Communion, a solo exhibition by acclaimed South African photographer Andrew Tshabangu, is currently on view at Gallery MOMO in Johannesburg.
Known for his evocative black-and-white imagery, Tshabangu invites viewers into a meditative space where the sacred pulses through the everyday. This latest body of work continues his legacy of transforming ordinary moments into lyrical reflections on faith, fellowship, and the human spirit.
Born in Soweto in 1966, Tshabangu has spent over three decades shaping the landscape of contemporary African photography. His work has been exhibited widely, from the Bamako Encounters Biennale of Photography to the Havana Biennial and the Johannesburg Art Gallery. A master of monochrome, Tshabangu’s practice is rooted in the spiritual and the urban, often blurring the line between documentary and devotion. His images are not just seen, but felt.
Communion brings together three significant series: the Salt Fields of Matola in Mozambique, the Wine Harvests of Saint-Émilion in France, and the ongoing Water is Ours, created across Southern Africa and New York. Though geographically dispersed, these works converge into a singular meditation on labour, ritual, and the elemental forces that bind us. Salt, wine, and water become metaphors for endurance, celebration, and renewal—each image a quiet invocation of shared humanity.
The series reflects Tshabangu’s longstanding fascination with water-related rituals. Even when not planned, his encounters with rivers, oceans, and shorelines draw him into the space where material life and spiritual meaning converge. Water cleanses, water blesses, water destroys and renews — Odysseus Shirindza
Communion is often explored so languidly in this work, but in a way that resists being flat. The wine that Shirindza so excellently describes as an allegory of time fits seamlessly with Tshabangu’s own experience and expertise. His eye is golden, like a scar of age, and he renders water as something stirring, almost sentient. Labour is seen as divinity, and divinity as kinship. In his black-and-white medium, there is depth, age, and tenderness. A worker carrying salt becomes a symbol of quiet resilience. A boat without people becomes a reflection on presence and absence. In solitude and in communion, Tshabangu asks us to consider how nature gives, and how people serve.
The exhibition opened on 09 October and will run until 15 November 2025. With just under two weeks remaining, visitors are encouraged to experience this profound offering at Gallery MOMO, 52 7th Avenue, Parktown North, Johannesburg.
