Gonna makes strides in photography

Larona Makhaiza | Sunday May 21, 2023 06:00

 

He says despite their detailed features, the images were taken at a spur of a moment. In an interview with Arts & Culture, the 27-year-old revealed that the showcase at Hilton Garden Inn has given him the opportunity to showcase his art.

“Well the art work at Hilton Garden Inn, we curated it and picked from my many other striking art pieces but for this particular showing, I had the idea to showcase a different side of our culture here in Botswana,” he said.

Monnakgotla explained that most of his images were taken at various occasions but reflects the lives of Batswana and their ways of living. “This collection of images could only be captured through a small window and most of them were pictures that were taken in unexpected instances of which I did while I was capturing most traditional weddings in Botswana,” he said.

Additionally, Monnakgotla said going around Botswana capturing images of traditional weddings in the country is what gave him the desire to tell a story about the culture of Botswana. “Capturing most traditional weddings in Botswana made me realise that I had an opportunity to show our culture under a different light hence why I am doing it here at the Hilton showcase,” he said.



Reminiscing on when he fell in love with photography, Monnakgotla said it dates back to the time when he was just a kid. “I have been in love with photography from a very early age of my life living in Kanye after seeing photographs of the family printed out on the small 4x5 sheets,” he explained. However, Monnakgotla said it was more of his curiosity that pushed him forward to push ahead with it. It is always said ‘curiosity killed the cat’ but in Monnakgotla’s case, curiosity brought him close to his passion and destiny. “Ever since I discovered my passion for photography, I picked up my camera up to now and it has really been a growing tumour,” he said.

Furthermore, Monnakgotla elucidated that business has been going really well for him in the past few months. “Business has been great recently and we recently just moved our offices into CBD Central Square and things there have really been moving quickly and we have been able to hire people which is one the great things,” the elated Monnakgotla said.

In addition, he said his great desire is to continue expanding his enterprise in the coming few months and years. Though it seems Monnakgotla has it all figured out, he said has also met his fair share of challenges in his journey as a photographer. “I have faced a lot of challenges and this is something we had to learn to work with or completely change. In the earlier stages we had problems with clients that would take 30 to 90 days to pay for the work that you have already done and submitted,” he said. But Monnakgotla indicated that the challenges he faced got better with time as they started getting the right clients who understand the business and pay well on time.