Artist Database

In 2019 Margaret Courtney-Clarke was shortlisted for both the Prix Pictet and the Contemporary African Photography Prize (CAP) -
she was nominated for the latter again in 2020.

Courtney-Clarke received Diplomas in Graphic Design and Photography (1971) at the University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South
Africa, and then enrolled at Scuola Libera di Roma in Rome, Italy in 1974 to study drawing and anatomy. She obtained her
Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Photojournalism at New York University (NYU), in New York in 1978. Spending more than four decades
working as a photographer between Italy, the USA and across the African continent she freelanced for magazines such as Life,
Geo, Stern, Attenzione, Newsweek and Architectural Digest and also produced her acclaimed trilogy: Ndebele: (1986), African
Canvas (1990) and Imazighen (1996) that has been exhibited in over two hundred Museums across the USA, Africa, Europe and
Japan. The trilogy is shortly to be republished by Steidl as a collector’s edition with new material from Courtney-Clarke’s travel
notebooks. Particularly focused on women’s creative practice she worked on several collaborations with Maya Angelou.

In 2021, Courtney-Clarke will present a solo exhibition at !Khwa ttu San Heritage Centre in Yzerfontein, South Africa, as well as an
exhibition foregrounding conversations with Maya Angelou at SMAC Gallery, Cape Town.