By Mofenyi Kesego
Looking Back captures a moment in which a young man stares back at the camera that imposes its gaze on him. This moment, brief though it was, is frozen in time and has since taken on a life of its own: it’s an act of resistance, a defiance of the predatory gaze of the lens and, by extension, the photographer. This prompts one to reconsider the meaning of this image.
Looking Back is under consideration to be part of The Fatshe Leno la Rona project, a monthly photography competition that, per its Instagram page, serves as a “platform dedicated to documenting Botswana through authentic visual storytelling.” Dedicated to celebrating the 60 years of Botswana’s independence, it calls on photographers to submit photographs that explore the fields of people, culture, and land – all in line with that month’s given theme. The competition runs from January to August 2026.
Mofenyi Kesego is a documentary photographer, writer of both fiction and creative nonfiction, and an aspiring filmmaker. His practice concerns itself with the capture and documentation of life as it occurs, and celebrates, with beauty and uncompromising honesty, the wonder of the world and the poetry of day-to-day life. He is a published author, with his short story, Old Timer’s Pride, featured in an anthology of short stories (My Botswana Storytelling) that speak to the experience of life in Botswana through the perspective of an adolescent. Moreover, he was nominated in 2024 for the National Geographic Young Explorers award. He has since gone on to work in film and television, taking on apprenticeships on productions of world-class television formats, and maintains ambitions of pursuing projects in that field.
Petlwana Journal of Creative Literature and the Arts 
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