Gentle soul. Masculinity redefined. In connection with his ancestors. Beauty in vulnerability.
ABOUT
Based in South Africa.
Micha Serraf was born and raised in Zimbabwe and fled to South Africa where he is currently based. In the mobility that has been a defining factor of his life, Micha has taken note of the behaviour of themselves and other foreign nationals in their navigation of post-apartheid South Africa. They display an acute awareness of what the safest shape they need to take on to survive particular contexts. This fluid presentation of self, and the ability to be malleable are tactics used to access acceptance and camouflage. In this exposure to several ways of existing, Micha has experienced and observed a variety of gender norms, enactments and ideologies. Micha seeks to dissect and dismantle the understanding of gender and belonging within this configuration, demonstrating the evolutionary, fluid and emotional entanglements related to the purpose, interpretations and performance of gender, race and origin.
“Throughout my life after fleeing Zimbabwe and as an artist I have been searching for home. Over the last few years I have decided to embrace being an alien (legal or otherwise). My work is informed by memories I have from when I was a child in Zimbabwe and my endeavour to understand the nostalgia I feel toward the unfamiliar. In an attempt to figure out what I am and where I belong - I will continue to make visual my memories, thoughts and narratives.”
Discover his artworks on mynt.art
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Awards & Exhibitions
Recipient of the Ritzau Art Prize with ISCP & 1-54 Art Fair, 2021
Decade of Change group show with British Journal of Photography in New York, 2021
Decade of Change group show with British Journal of Photography in Hong Kong, 2021
Winner of the FastTrack 18 with the British Journal of Photography and 1854 Media, 2021
Published in the South African National Life Orientation Curriculum alongside Zanele Muholi, 2021
British Journal of Photography shortlisted as top 20 photographers for WaterAid commission, 2021
Oath Magazine contemporary photography group show, 2021
Selected by Foam Museum as the youngest top 20 emerging artist, 2020
Paris Photo, Group Show, 2020 [Postponed Due to COVID-19]
Foam Magazine Exhibition London Photo, 2020 [Postponed Due to COVID-19]
European Month of Photograph in Berlin with CO Berlin at Kuhlhaus, 2020
Amsterdam Unseen Photography Festival with Foam Museum, 2020 [Postponed Due to COVID-19]
International Pride Photo Award for Best Single Image, 2020
Africa Photo Awards Portraiture Finalist 2020
Group Show, Studio Voop, South Africa 2020
“To Thine Own Self Be True”, a Group Exhibition at Kelvin Corner Gallery 2019
VSCO exhibition in London and New York pop up galleries 2018
“GA MASAITSEWENG”, a Group Exhibition at The Slave Lodge Gallery, South Africa 2018
MYNT.ERVIEW
Your art is…
Merely a suggestion.
An invitation to celebrate a world so far away and foreign yet so human and close to home.
Name something you love, and why.
Mangoes! We used to grow up in Zimbabwe eating them off the trees like apples.
What would you do if you weren't afraid?
Sing
Why photography?
It's inescapable. What you're looking at is what is, what was, and all you can do is choose to embrace the parts of you it confronts.
Which professional success meant the most to you?
Being selected by Foam Museum as the top global emerging talent.
Meeting with the team at Foam is always a highlight for me.
Where do you go when you want to be with you?
I dive into a playlist of very eclectic music and try to readjust my perspectives.
Tell us something about your education!
All the most important lessons came from my mother.
What was the weirdest encounter, the craziest adventure or the most beautiful moment you experienced on a shoot?
I was documenting a small fishing village where an old fisherman told me that I was living his dream as an artist and that it made him realise there was still time.
What is more important to you: Form or content?
Sometimes people need to see what they're feeling and sometimes people need to feel it.
I guess my answer would depend on the room.
Where does your inspiration live?
With the ancestors I've never met but with whom I feel directly linked.
