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Giya Makondo-Wills is a British-South African photographer, educator and talk show host based in The Netherlands, although you can sometimes find her in South Africa or the U.K.

While her foundations lie in documentary photography, her practice has evolved alongside shifting cultural understandings of representation, documentation, and witnessing.

Working across the still image, text, sound, archives and moving image – her stories stem from questions of identity, community, systems of power, and challenging dominant narratives. De-colonial and decentering Eurocentric modes of thinking are central to her practice, as is the preservation of the stories from the margins.

In 2024, Giya became a Magnum Foundation Fellow. In 2022, she joined the FUTURES Photography network. Since 2021 she has been a lecturer in the BA Photography program at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague since. She also runs guest workshops internationally and hosts the live talk show FOTODOK Book Talks at Tivoli Vredenburg.

Since 2017, she has collaborated on various projects internationally, participating in de-colonial exchanges with practitioners from various fields and served on juries and steering groups developing arts education and opportunities for marginalised artists. She has been commended for her work and regularly exhibited and published her work internationally.

She is available for workshops, public speaking engagements, commissions and collaborations. For an extended CV please get in touch. 

exhibitions

They Came From The Water While The World Watched

Brighton Fringe Festival, Brigton, England. May - June 2025

Grounding, Stories of Migration – FOTODOK x BredaPhoto, Journeys Edition.
Breda Photo Festival. Breda, The Netherlands. September - November 2024

Our Cultural Connection to Water
Royal Maritime Museum Greenwich, London, England. March 2023 - February 2024

Bodies in (e)motion -  From Where I Stand, Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie
Kunstverein Ludwigshafen and other locations, Germany. March - May 2022

CROYANCES, faire et defaire l'invisible
Cultural Institue of Islam – Paris, France. March 2020 - January 2021

Photo Vogue, BASE
Milan, Italy. November 2018

Hiareth. An MA Documentary photography group show.
Truman Brewery – London, England. October 2018

FOUNDATION. An exhibition celebrating the best photographic talent nurtured in the South West
Poly, Falmouth, England. April 28th-2nd May 2018

 Duesseldorf Photo Weekend 2018 'Neighbourhood'
Dusseldorf, Germany. 16th -18th February 2018

 Cream 17: A Showcase of Graduate Photography Talent
Crane Kalman Gallery – Brighton, England. 2017/2018

 Young Selector for 'Empire through the Lens: pictures from the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection'
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol, England. 2017/2018

 LagosPhoto Festival 2017 'Regimes of Truth'
African Artists Foundation – Lagos, Nigeria. November - December 2017

 Its Nice That Magazine ‘Introducing The Graduates’
London, England. July 2017

 Two Eyes Serve A Movement USW Documentary Photography Graduates
Seen Fifteen Gallery, London, England. June 2017

artist talks

Artist talk - Breda Photo: Migration stories in pictures

Nieuwe Veste, Breda, Netherlands 2024

RTM Talk – Reclaiming Narratives, International Film Festival
Rotterdam, Netherlands. 2024

FOTODOK Conference – (IN)VISIBILITIES, Gender and photography in The Netherlands
The Netherlands. 2022

Artist talk – Bodies in (e)motion, From Where I Stand, Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 
Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, Germany.  2022

Guest Lecture – St Joost School of Art and Design
Breda, The Netherlands. 2021

Artist talk – BOP Bristol, Royal Photographic Society & Martin Parr Foundation
Bristol, England. 2021

More Than a Number – Symposium, Turning Point: Diffusion 2021 Ffotogallery
Cardiff, Wales. 2021

Lunchtime lecture – The Royal Academy of Art in The Hauge, KABK
The Hague, Netherlands. 2021

Panel discussion – The Age of The Female Gaze, Belfast Photo Festival
Belfast, Ireland. 2021

Guest Lecture – London College Of Communication
London, England. 2020 

Guest Lecture – Willem de Kooning Academie
Rotterdam, The Netherlands. 2020

In conversations with the British Journal of Photography and 1854 Media
Online. 2020

Miniclick Photography talks – The Royal Photographic Society
Bristol, England. 2020

Miniclick Photography talks @ Marwoods
Brighton  England. 2020

Guest Lecture – Erasmus Exchange: Migration and Citizenship
London, England. 2020

Women in Focus: Documentary and Citizenship – National Museum of Wales and The European Centre for Documentary Research
Cardiff, Wales. 2019

awards

2024 - Recipient Magnum Foundation PEX Heat Fellowship

2022 – Selected by FOTODOK to join the  FUTURERS in Photography platform

2019 – Nominated by Anastasia Taylor-Lind for the 2019 World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass

 2018 – '31 women to watch out for' - British Journal of Photography

 2018 – Shortlisted for the  PHMuseum Women's grant 

 2018 – Royal Photographic Society Graduate Class of 2018 

 2018 – British Journal of Photography Graduate Class of 2018

 2018 – YCN (You Can Now) annual magazine - 20 Rising Stars in the creative industry

 2017 – Selected for Its Nice That Magazine ‘The Graduates’

 2017 – Shortlisted for the Royal Photographic Society 160 Exhibition

 2017 – Shortlisted for Photogrvy Grant 

 2017 – Prize winner,  IAFOR Documentary Photography Award

 2017 – Selected by Marie-France Kittler & Salvator Vitale – Source Photographic Review, Graduates

 2016 – Recipient of the Reginald Salisbury Fund Travel Award