Looking Through the Lens

The Roger Ballen Centre for Photography brings together a wide range of subjects, cultures, environments and artistic approaches – revealing photography’s enduring ability to document, question, imagine and connect.

WORDS Palesa Mohola PHOTOS JVR Architects, Jim and Tonic / Courtesy of the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography

Returning for their 20th edition, the Sony World Photography Awards come to the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography. Produced by Creo in collaboration with the World Photography Organisation, Decisive Moment: Sony World Photography Awards brings together selected winning images from the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Awards, on view in Forest Town, Johannesburg.

“To bring these images to Johannesburg is a real privilege. The exhibition gathers perspectives, stories, environments, cultures and artistic approaches from across the globe, and presents them in a city that is itself defined by complexity and diversity. We believe this exhibition will offer something meaningful to every visitor, while celebrating the extraordinary work of the Sony World Photography Awards,” says Roger Ballen, Founder of the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography.

Alongside Decisive Moment is New Eyes: The Roger Ballen Centre Photography Award, an exhibition dedicated to emerging South African photographers. It aims to give selected photographers an opportunity to show their work within a leading institutional setting alongside recognised photographers to emerge from the Sony World Photography Awards.

This inaugural event brings together the work of Karabo Mooki, D.M. Terblanche and Zwelibanzi Zwane, who were nominated by an esteemed panel, each member of which brings a considered perspective shaped by their work across photography, education and curatorship. Both exhibitions create a dialogue between international photographic excellence and the emerging voices shaping the future of photography in South Africa.

At the centre of Decisive Moment and New Eyes is a substantial public and educational programme designed to deepen visual literacy and encourage closer engagement with contemporary photography. The programme will extend the exhibitions beyond the museum walls through activations, talks, walkabouts, workshops, masterclasses and educational engagements.

Reflecting the international reach of the awards, submissions totalled over 430 000 images from more than 200 countries and territories – spanning documentary and portraiture to wildlife, sport, landscape and creative photography.

The exhibition will run at the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography from 15 August 2026 to 22 January 2027. rogerballen.com | insideoutfoundation.co.za

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