Francki Burger (1966 - )
Francki Burger was born in Johannesburg in 1966, matriculated from Linden Hoërskool in 1984, after which she gained a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design from the University of Stellenbosch in 1988. She studied photography in Florence, Italy, at the Scuola de Medici in 1989. On returning she worked as a press photographer at Beeld newspaper until 1992. Burger assisted commercial photographer Merwelene van der Merwe for two years, after which she worked as a professional photographer till 2007. Clients include various magazines and advertising agencies.
Burger works primarily with photography through which she explores place and belonging. She is interested in how politics, race, history and violence are embedded within the South African landscape and how it reflects our historical and ideological subjectivities. Land in South Africa has always been a contentious issue and landscape becomes a vehicle through which she investigates identity, in search of a sense of belonging within a group or a nation.
The work for this exhibition comprise of black and white, hand printed silver prints, some small-scale images and others large mural scale work, through which she explores the above mentioned themes. As landscape accumulates layers of memory and history, the photographic process mimics this in her work. She is interested in to what degree the photographic print can be layered and manipulated to contain meaning ‘under’ the physical surface. The result appear to uphold the conventions of ‘straight’ photography, and while it does in fact acknowledge the photograph’s function as a trace of the real, on closer inspection, this becomes less stable. What is reveals is a palimpsest; layers of images that evoke other histories, stories, people and places, a negotiation into how we belong within the South African landscape.
EDUCATION & TRAINING
1984 Matriculated, Linden Hoërskool, Johannesburg.
1988 Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design: University of Stellenbosch.
1989 Diploma in Photography, Scuola Lorenzo de Medici, Florence, Italy.
2003 Advanced Diploma in Fine Art, University of the Witwatersrand.
2008 Master of Fine Art: University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
EMPLOYMENT
1990 – 1992 Press Photographer, Beeld newspaper, Johannesburg.
1993 – 1995 Assistant photographer to Merwelene van der Merwe.
1996 – 2008 Professional Photographer – magazines (De Kat, Fair Lady, Rooi Rose, Insig, Style) and advertising agencies – clients (FNB, Telkom, First Rand, Intersite, Gensec, Sasol, Urban Brew)
AWARDS
1994 Fuji Awards for Fine Art Photography, Gold and Bronze.
2004 Merit bursary: MA study, University of the Witwatersrand.
