Nthatuoa Koeshe

PHOTOGRAPHER Justice Kalebe says he lives to change people’s mindsets by telling Lesotho stories though photography.

Born and bred in Ha-Thamae, Maseru the 41-year-old has worked for British and Australian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for the past 15 years supporting international volunteers working in communities across southern Africa.

His passion for developmental work started with an interest in humanitarian photography.

His geologist and fisherman father had a camera which he would use to take pictures of students to make extra money.

“I have always loved art and I remember the first time I held a camera in 1993,” Kalebe said.

“It was an Olympus camera which belonged to my father and it fascinated me.”

“While I was in Form C, I used the camera to take photos of students photos for extra money. They paid me M5 for every photograph.”

After completing his high school, Kalebe went to Bloemfontein and enrolled with Technikon Free State (TECOFS) which is and studied import and export. After graduation in…he worked for Skill Share International as an events planner managing community projects.

He however, left Skill Share International in 2009 after getting a job at Australian Volunteer International, an NGO in Rosebank in South Africa working as a regional programme officer.

“At the time, my love for photography had already blossomed and I used it to document success stories. I had realised that NGOs documented stories well with visuals,” Kalebe said.

In 2012, the then thought of venturing into full time photography but waited until 2016 when gained the courage to leave his full-time job.

Although he started off out of sheer passion, Kalebe enrolled for short photography courses to sharpen his skills.

After spending three months seated at home in 2016, he decided to embark on a 10-day trip around Lesotho taking pictures. It was during the same period that he got his first big project working with Rural Self-Help Development Association (RSDA).

“I held a cellphone photography workshop for famers where I taught them how to use smart phones as tools for marketing their produce.”

Since then, Kalebe has worked with different companies and NGO’s such as RSDA, the Transformation Resources Centre (TRC), the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) among others helping them document their work around the country.

As a person with in-depth understanding of the Lesotho issues, his experience has shown that foreign aid has better impact when the community is empowered to tell their personal stories, particularly through photography.

His images enhance the visibility of key players in community development and how they benefit from the initiatives done in their communities.

Kalebe also believes that visuals are a powerful and direct way of complementing monitoring and evaluation activities.

Locally, he has worked with organisations different among them RSDA; Lesotho Good Shepherd Centre for Teenage Mothers; St. Angela Cheshire Home and TRC while internationally he has also worked with German Developmental Organisation (GIZ) and other corporates.

He recently held two exhibitions showcasing some of his work in local communities. The initiative was undertaken to mentor rural villagers in visual storytelling.

In 2018, Justice held his first solo exhibition making him the first Mosotho to host a solo exhibition in the country.

“I remember I was even advised to host it for free as exhibitions were not too popular in Lesotho but the tickets were sold out in the first two weeks of the announcement of the exhibition,” Kalebe said.

He said his aim was to change the mindset of Basotho and it seems the plan worked because there are now a few photographers who hold their own exhibitions.

“My journey in photography is all about changing people’s mindsets while at the same time, telling Basotho stories through photography.

“There are connotations about head boys and through my lenses, I tell more stories than what people see. Rural people are seen to be poor but in fact, those people are wealthy and their disadvantage is lack of knowledge.”

In 2019, Kalebe embarked onto another project called Possible Dreams Foundation about little known Ha-Sekantši village and eventually got a company called J Portelli Projects to build a footbridge for the village.

Ha-Sekantši now has a permanently displayed photographs taken in the past year at the chief’s residence to promote ecotourism.

He said so far, they have hosted tourists from Japan, Wales, China, Germany, Zambia and South Africa.