"Create your own opportunities"

Read: 2287

"You cannot always look to other people and companies to get a job. Sometimes you have to do your own thing and create your own opportunities."

This is the opinion of a local professional photographer, Dakalo Madzuhe. He fell in love with photography at an early age and made sure that he pursued this as a career.

“I speak to the youth in particular, because the youth are the cradle of a country’s economy,” he said. “One needs to get up and follow his or her heart. Even if you are privileged enough to go to university and obtain certain qualifications, you still need to have an independent mind.”

Madzuhe established his brand as Wa Camera or Dakalo Madzuhe Wa Camera, and had become known as a gifted, successful photographer in the Vhembe District. “Let popularity come with hard work, perfectionism and excellency,” he said. “As a photographer, I learned earlier on to strive to meet my clients’ satisfaction.”

A resident of Shayandima, Madzuhe holds a diploma in marketing from Unisa and he is currently doing an LLB through Unisa. “I didn't study photography, but the passion I have for this field is great and alive,” he said.

He stated that he fell in love with photography after seeing a certain man passing in front his family house carrying big cameras. His sister got him a small camera, and that was when he taught himself basic photography skills. “It was like discovering a new world that was all hidden from me,” he said.

“Don't look at a qualification and think you are seeing a job, it’s only a possibility for a job,” he said. “But what if that possibility does not translate into reality at the expected time? Are you just going to sit at home doing nothing? Use those skills to do something else.”

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.