23–27 February 2026
Hosted by the Inside Out Foundation, this gathering continued the Italian Circle’s founding spirit of sharing ideas, questionning assumptions and imagining new futures for the medium of photography and its supportive institutions and organizations.
The Todi Circle | Johannesburg took place at the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography, bringing together curators, writers, collectors, photographers and diverse actors from across Africa, Europe, and the Americas, combining the hallmark format of the Italian Circle – morning & afternoon conversations, shared meals and evening receptions – with local site visits to Johannesburg’s most vibrant artistic and academic sites.
This first African edition has been hosted by Roger Ballen and the Inside Out Foundation, in collaboration with the co-directors of The Todi Circle: William A. Ewing and Mario Santoro–Woith.
Participants included:
- Yaëlle Biro, art historian, curator; Scientific Coordinator at the National Institute for Art History (INHA), Paris; curatorial consultant, the Museum of West African Art, Benin City. French. She lives in Paris.
- Adrien Bitibaly, documentary photographer and founder/director Photosa, Ougadougou’s biennial of photography. He lives between Burkina Faso and Gap, France.
- Dennis da Silva, photographer, printer; co-founder Silvertone International. He lives in Johannesburg.
- Jabulani Dhlamini, documentary photographer; Alumni Fellow, Edward Ruiz Mentorship Programme and Market Photo Workshop. He lives in Johannesburg.
- Zein Khalifa, co-founder of TINTERA, Egypt’s first gallery dedicated to photography. Egyptian and Brtitish. She lives between Cairo and London.
- Awa Konaté, founder/director of the Culture Art Society (CAS). Danish-Ivorian. She lives in London.
- Yvon Langué, educator, independent curator; co-founder Untitled, focused on design, art direction and curatorial practice; Coordinator for Graphic Design at Marrakesh School of Visual Art. Cameroonian. He lives in Marrakesh.
- Catherine E. McKinley, collector, independent curator, writer; director of the McKinley Collection. American. She lives in New York.
- Same Mdluli, art historian, lecturer and writer; Senior Specialist-Curator and Manager of Standard Bank Gallery and Standard Bank Art Lab, Johannesburg, South African. She lives in Johannesburg.
- Azu Nwagbogu, curator, writer and founder of the online journal Art Base Africa; founder/directort of Lagos Photo Festival; founder of the African Artists Foundation (AFF). Nigerian. He lives in Lagos.
- Paul Weinberg, documentary photographer; archivist and Senior Curator, Centre for African Studies, University of Capetown. He lives in Capetown.
Like its Italian counterpart, The Todi Circle Johannesburg is not so much a conference as a conversation – a space for reflection rather than formal presentation, for collective energy over individual effort, spontaneity over a structured agenda, and for shared inquiry into a vital medium that has done much to define our time.
Venue: Roger Ballen Centre for Photography, 2 Duncombe Road Forest Town Johannesburg. South Africa
