Neo Ntsoma is an award winning photographer, educator, and creative consultant dedicated to amplifying the voices of marginalized communities through her powerful images. With a focus on identity, culture, and social justice, her work has been showcased in prominent international publications, exhibitions, and awards.
A trailblazer in her field, Ntsoma has received numerous accolades. In 2004, she became the first female recipient of the prestigious Mohamed Amin Award, the CNN African Journalist of the Year Photography Prize, for her photo essay entitled, ‘Their World in Flames'. She is the recipient of the National Geographic All Roads Photography Award and the co-author of ‘Women by Women’, a book on 50 years of women’s photography in South Africa. In 2006, Media24, Africa’s largest media group included her in their list of ‘100 Most Influential Women’ and featured in Cosmopolitan magazine’s top thirty “awesome women” (2004 and 2006). In 2019, Ntsoma was also featured in the Mail and Guardian bulletin of Top 100 Women Changing South Africa.
Ntsoma has also lent her expertise as a judge for various photography competitions and served on selection committees for prestigious awards most notably the UNESCO Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads International Photo Contest, Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award and [UNESCO ICM] Martial Arts Photo Contest. As an independent curator, she has organized a few photography exhibitions including the Womandla Photography exhibition at the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China, the Wits University Fine Arts Students exhibition launched at the 2nd Quanzhou (Huaguang) International Image Biennial, Fujian Photographic Art Museum in China (2023) including Born Free: Generation of Hope, a photographic exhibition by Dutch photographer Ilvy Njiokiktjien’s at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, in which she explores the lives of South Africa's first generation born after apartheid (2024).
Ntsoma’s leadership extends to her roles as a Convener of Photography in several national esteemed media awards and she has also shared her knowledge as a guest at renowned institutions such as the New York International Centre for Photography, Stanford University, Yale University as well as Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography in Bangladesh, where she taught for a year between 2002 and 2003.
