BIO
SAMANTHA REINDERS is a photojournalist and multimedia producer currently based between her hometown of Cape Town, South Africa and Kathmandu in Nepal. She holds a graduate degree in visual communications from Ohio University. She believes strongly in telling people’s stories – as personally as she can and with as much empathy as possible.
She’s thinks speaking in the third person is silly. So….
I’m not 100% certain when my career actually began – but I thinks it was either somewhere in the curious hills of Appalachia, whilst riding shotgun in my dads beloved LandRover or sandwiched between two other photographers in the press pool in the Oval Office. (I covered the Washington, DC political landscape – including the White House and Capitol Hill in 2005).
Either way, I’m glad it did because it has, among other things, allowed me to chase penguins, fly on Air Force One, swim with sharks and meet a collection of interesting people – from business men to homeless men, survivors, sadhus and sociopaths and sweet grannies at bake-sales. I’ve explored remote islands, teeming cities and untouched landscapes. I love what I do.
I’m inspired by and pursuing stories about our relation to and impact on the landscape we inhabit. I’m motivated by (among other things…) the African continent and its crazy complexities and am currently working on personal projects that tell a small slither of its story. I’m finding that, more and more, my personal work is exploring the line between art and documentary photography and I’m fiddling with installation and other visual mediums to tell stories in new ways.
In addition to working behind the lens I love to teach, which I do a lot of. I’ve also edited several books and am keenly interested in curatorship and the importance of the photographic archive.
I’ve been trusted by an array of editorial, NGO and commercial clients incl:
National Geographic, The Smithsonian, Time, NPR, US News & World Report, The New York Times, MSF, OSF, The Gates Foundation, UNDP, L’Express, Der Spiegel, Vogue, Action Aid, The Sunday Times, Architectural Review, Readers Digest, The Fader, The London Financial Times, South African Tourism, Goldman Sachs, Mazda, Mercedes Benz, The Ocean Conservancy and FaceBook.
Exhibitions | Prizes | Stuff:
2019
Shortlisted for the Contemporary African Prize in Photography (CAP)
Attended the IWMF/Native Women's Media Leadership Bootcamp, Kenya
2018
Curated UnStill Life - An exhibition of contemporary African women photographers at Photo Kathamandu, Nepal
2016
Images included in Scope: The Nepal Issue at Taragaon Museum, Kathmandu, Nepal
Curated Horizons – A group show of Cape Town photographers at Drawing Rooms, South Africa
2015
Specialist Journalist of the Year, Media24, South Africa
2010 – 2014
Photographic Editor at Weg/go! Magazine (South Africa’s largest travel magazine)
2014
Solo Exhibition of WalkFastWhistle, Drawing Rooms, South Africa
Curated UnPublished - A retrospective of unpublished South African news photography at Young Blood Art Gallery, South Africa
2013
My Future, My Voice, Photo Workshop in collaboration with the US Embassy in Swaziland.
2012
Images included in Exposure Now at CIRCA/Everard Reed Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2011
Mondi Shanduka Media Award for outstanding South African journalism
2010
Open Society Foundation Media Fellowship
Images included Bonani Africa, South Africa and Africa Scores, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam