“While photographing Zimbabweans' daily life for grant proposals, my passion for photography intensified dramatically. It was through capturing the beauty of the women of Zimbabwe, I began to see photography as a way to connect and communicate with people. When I returned home to attend my sister’s wedding after nine months there, so many of my friends and family were taken back with my images. I remember being surprised but soon after very inspired by their appreciation. I began to dream about ideas for my life which previously wouldn’t wouldn’t have occurred to me. I was excited to return to Zimbabwe to concentrate more on my work. Portraits of people weren’t going to be just for Jekesa Pfungwa but a way for me to work to open many more minds about Africans. I became devoted to my new dream.”

2023 will mark 30 years of making documentary photographs in African countries and elsewhere, primarily in a developing country context. It has become Jelisa’s lifelong passion. Most important to her is providing a visual language to inform and nurture different ideas than what is the western media. By sharing more positive, sensitive and faithful images as widely as possible to counter such discriminatory and racist ideas, she works to dispel long held myths and untruths. Jelisa’s first photography exhibition was a solo one in 1994 at her alma mater, the University of Utah. The response was so positive that she was determined to return to Africa to continue making images to document her experiences and connections with African people. The title of her most recent solo exhibition this past month at A. Smith Gallery speaks proudly and definitively of the many people she has connected with over the years, LIGHT OUT OF AFRICA. "I am filled with pride to know I had the tenacity and determination to never give up on my dreams," says Jelisa.

Jelisa's path of exploration through Eastern and Southern Africa would develop organically over time. In 1996, Jelisa backpacked solo across the African continent. Beginning in Egypt, she traveled by bus, minibus, lorry, ferry, tuk tuks and in the backs of large trucks in the company of chickens. She traveled like this through Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe staying for two years, Swaziland, Lesotho and lastly to Mozambique for four years. In doing so, Jelisa embraced and lived the travel dreams of her grandfather — her first mentor in photography — thereby making both their dreams come true.

Throughout her career as a photographer, Jelisa has traveled the world, adding Rwanda, Namibia, and South Africa for five years in Africa as well as Argentina for two years, Bolivia, Brazil, Belize, Guatemala and Mexico in the Americas with aims of gaining and spreading cultural understanding and appreciation. For almost three decades, Jelisa has focused her work on the people, especially children, the cultures and environments she has witnessed and experienced while living in and visiting these communities while absorbing more of their cultures. Learning from the people she has grown to love and trust, Jelisa is a master at creating images by uniting her viewers with her photographic 'subjects' resulting in resonant images that are true examples of love and inspiration. Jelisa shares her mission with us in her own words:

“So many of the images of Africans we see in first world settings are based on negative stereotypes of people devastated by poverty, disease and war; showing people who come from a place that is dangerous and insecure. This results in a very distorted vision of an entire continent of people with diverse lives and circumstances. I believe that these characterizations tend to limit our understanding of the very humanity of African people. With my work from Mozambique, I want to resist these one dimensional characterizations to express what I see and have experienced over the years. It is the Mozambicans themselves who are my inspiration to create photography to be shared as widely as I am able. There is nothing more motivating to me than starting my day before the sun rises to walk, to meet and talk with people, interacting with them in their natural environments carrying out their daily activities. What is always remarkable to me as the day passes is not the invalidating distortions of actual lives but the curiosity, beauty and easy generosity of the people. My desire as an artist is to challenge the viewer to be more conscious of what they see and conclude when they consume images of Africans, like Mozambicans. My images advance a more positive and sensitive vision of people who are worthy of more insightful representation.” She is grateful to them for giving her so much love and purpose in life.