Collective Cares: Studio Visit #002 – Loliwe Phiri

For the second studio visit of Collective Cares, Naoko Mabon visited Loliwe Phiri, an artist who specialises in humanitarian photography, to speak about Loliwe’s practice. Click here to read Naoko’s response to her visit and conversation with Loliwe in a form of short writing titled “Desire For Impact, Desire For Positive Change – Loliwe Phiri On Visual-storytelling”.

Loliwe Phiri is an artist who specialises in humanitarian photography. Based in Lusaka, Zambia. She often works in the fields across different communities in Zambia and beyond, capturing images that tell stories of the humanitarian efforts of international NGOs and local organisations who are making a positive impact to those communities or wider society.

Studio Visit is a series of commissioned responses to encounters and conversations with artists/practitioners in Zambia, organised by Collective Cares. This is, however, not a series of mere recordings or documentations of visits. Through creating a critical response to the encounters or conversations, the series explores a way of working or thinking together that values relationship over extraction, conversation over interview, and care over capture. Studio Visit is a cultivation of conditions under which thinking can happen, knowledge can be shared, and solidarity can grow.

Image credit:
Captured on 17th February, 2025 in Western Province, Zambia on the Zambezi River Plains during a story gathering assignment. © Loliwe Photography