Lunga Ntila is a fine art photographer whose work is marked by storytelling, identity and deconstruction. As a conceptual photographer she makes use of a practice that brings together self-portraiture and collage making. The work that she creates is a melding pot of all the images, sounds and feelings that she has come across that she now uses as reference points in her work.
Lunga Ntila, a fine art photographer and digital collagist based in South Africa, constructs visual worlds where identity is constantly broken and rebuilt. Known for her arresting self-portraits and layered compositions, Ntila’s work traverses personal, political, and spiritual landscapes—always challenging viewers to confront the multiplicity within themselves.
A Life in Translation: Cultural Shifts and Personal Navigation
Born in 1995 in Pretoria and raised across different continents—Germany, Benin, the Netherlands, and South Africa—Ntila’s upbringing was one of constant cultural movement. As the child of diplomats, she became adept at adapting to new environments, yet struggled to find fixed definitions of self. This shapeshifting, transitional way of living informs her art: fluid, fragmented, and impossible to pin down.
“My work is a response to constantly having to locate myself,” she says. Her collages become maps—visual tools to make sense of displacement, belonging, and the echoes of multiple homes.
Digital Collage as Self-Inquiry
Armed with a Nikon D5200 and Adobe Photoshop, Ntila’s creative process begins with a photograph—often a self-portrait—and proceeds through careful digital fragmentation. She cuts, overlaps, and distorts her own image, creating compositions that seem simultaneously complete and unraveling. Her aesthetic, rooted in deconstruction, invites viewers to ask: What does it mean to be whole in a world that constantly demands reinvention?
Unlike traditional collage that assembles disparate elements, Ntila reworks repetition—fragmenting her own image multiple times to create mirrored, kaleidoscopic effects. The repetition does not resolve into symmetry but gestures toward complexity, contradiction, and spiritual layering.
Themes in Ntila’s Wor
Ntila’s work resists static ideas of identity. Instead, it insists on flux. Each portrait is a study in transformation, where the self is a site of constant negotiation. “There’s a process of coming apart and stitching yourself together,” she explains. Her images speak to a generation familiar with diaspora, hybridity, and digital selfhood.
Her project Ukuzilanda (2020), a solo exhibition at BKhz Gallery, channels ancestral energy. The title—a Xhosa word loosely translated as “retrieving oneself”—points to spiritual excavation. In her series God Among Us!, Ntila draws inspiration from traditional rites, sacred symbols, and bees—often seen as messengers between worlds. These works blur the line between personal and sacred, suggesting that healing begins with remembering.
Ntila uses her art as a vehicle for feminist resistance. Her self-representations reject Eurocentric beauty standards and instead center Blackness as divine, layered, and powerful. “I think it’s political to choose yourself as a subject,” she has said, and in doing so, she shifts the gaze—asserting control over how Black bodies are seen, distorted, and celebrated.
Artistic Milestones
- Ukuzilanda (2020) – Her breakout solo show at BKhz Gallery received critical acclaim for its intimate yet cosmic portrayal of selfhood, spiritual memory, and ritual.
- God Among Us! (2021) – This body of work explores ancestral presence and transformation through spiritual symbolism.
- Collaborations and Commercial Work – Lunga’s visual voice has caught the attention of fashion and tech brands, including work with Victoria Beckham and Sonos, blending her fine art sensibility with pop-cultural impact.
- Exhibitions and Recognition – Featured at Design Indaba, AKAA (Paris), and São Paulo’s International Art Fair, Lunga has emerged as one of the most vital voices in the new wave of South African digital art.
Beyond the Frame: New Experiments
In recent years, Ntila has begun expanding her practice beyond two-dimensional collages. Incorporating mirrors, large-scale prints, and immersive installation, she is exploring how space, audience, and reflection shape the viewer’s engagement. There’s also interest in translating her work into wearable art—a natural evolution that bridges fashion, ritual, and image-making.
Why Her Work Matters
Lunga Ntila’s art speaks directly to the current cultural moment. In an era defined by algorithmic identity and fragmented digital personas, her collages remind us of the beauty in complexity. She reclaims fragmentation as a source of power rather than weakness—an act of artistic and spiritual sovereignty.
Through self-reflection and ancestral grounding, her work offers a mirror—one that reflects not only her own multiplicities but ours too.
