Koto Bolofo is a visionary who has spent 30 years crossing, connecting and redefining the photographic genres of portraiture, documentary and fashion.
Born in Lesotho in 1959, Koto Bolofo grew up in London after his family fled apartheid-era Southern Africa as political refugees. He discovered photography at art college and was immediately drawn to the magic of the darkroom. While working night shifts at a supermarket, he built a portfolio in his spare time, photographing friends and people he found interesting with a borrowed camera, using only natural light - an experience that shaped the intuitive understanding of light that continues to distinguish his work.
In 1988, his work caught the attention of Richard Avedon, who invited him to New York and urged him to remain true to his own visual language. Bolofo took that advice to heart. Throughout a career spanning fashion, portraiture, documentary photography and film, he has retained an unusual degree of artistic freedom, approaching commissions as opportunities to construct his own narratives rather than conforming to an established formula.
Koto Bolofo works with curiosity and empathy. The influence of his early years in the darkroom remains palpable in his intuitive understanding of light and precise attention to form. His images are rooted in the visual language of classic photography but never bound by its conventions: unexpected gestures, humour and bold compositions continually overturn what we expect to see. He also brings a particular sensitivity to materials and textures. Nathalie Herschdorfer, Director of Photo Elysée, describes his work as having an "iconic, sculptural strength" that "captures the eye, seduces - but also astonishes."
Bolofo's desire to look beyond public images also runs through his many books, several of which were created with publisher Gerhard Steidl. Sibusiso Mbhele and His Fish Helicopter follows a visionary South African outsider artist and received the Book Award at Les Rencontres d'Arles in 2002. The project also took the form of a film, first shown at MoMA, New York, in 2000. Another of his books, The Prison, documents Robben Island and the brutal conditions endured there by Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners.
Alongside his photography, Bolofo has made several independently produced films on 16mm, moving between documentary and fiction. His work has been exhibited internationally, and in 2022 he received a Lucie Award honouring his achievements in photography. Today Bolofo lives in France and works internationally.