Considering he’s been producing his brave and eerie photojournalism since 1985, it’s something of a surprise to find this is his UK solo debut. Peers including Simon Njami and David Goldblatt credit him as one of the most important practitioners of his generation, and he won his first award in 1992.

The most powerful of the cave pictures include his brother Ishmael, taken shortly before his death from Aids, but Mofokeng’s work is both subtle in its revisiting of political atrocities and quietly positive.

“One can’t travel far within this country before coming upon shadowed ground of negative remembrances of violence and tragedy,” he acknowledges.

“This partly explains my peregrinations here and in foreign lands. In 1997 I started to visit the shadow grounds in Europe and Asia. I wanted to see how other countries were dealing with places associated with negative memories. The demise of apartheid has brought to the fore a crisis of spiritual insecurity for the many who believe in the spiritual dimensions of life.

“Today, this consciousness of spiritual forces, which helped people cope with the burdens of apartheid, is being undermined by mutations in nature. If apartheid was a scourge the new threat is a virus – invisible perils both."

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