Sharday Swanepoel (b.1986) is a lens-based artist living in Kommetjie, South Africa.
With a background in Architectural Studies, her interest in sculpting with light naturally evolved into a photographic practice. As a mother of four, photography became both a creative outlet and a way to preserve her personal stories.
Swanepoel’s work explores an interior landscape shaped by memory, domestic life, and the psychological weight of motherhood. Her images often blend the familiar with the surreal. Using flash and hard light she reveals her subjects in stark, unflinching detail. The result is a visual language that is both strange and intimate: nostalgic yet eerie, inviting viewers into a world where childhood memory and maternal identity overlap in unexpected ways.
Group Exhibitions
Open Studios Kommetjie, Cape Town, 2024
August House Salon Show, Through The Lens Collective, Johannesburg, 2024
The Uncanny, FNB Art Fair Open City Programme, Johannesburg, 2024
Portrait Show, Through The Lens Collective, Johannesburg, 2023
The Wildest Most Beautiful Ugly, Too Tired Project, 2023
Open Studios Kommetjie, Cape Town, 2023
Press, Publications, Interviews, Features, etc
Memory Cult Magazine, Issue 01, 2025
Tombe, Issue 03, 2025
GUP Magazine’s FRESH EYES X Hungry Eyes, 2025
Chico Photobook Review, 2025
Guest interview on ‘The Real Photo Show’ podcast, 2025
Tombe, Issue 01, 2024