Gaxx “Not every client is your client”: The realities of building a photography business in Zimbabwe

Unpublished ran a festival celebrating visual storytellers called “Unpublished in Africa”. The first day of the festivities started with a panel that included Tinashe Gakaka the man behind Gaxx Photography and the Creative Director of Kreate. Gaxx has been featured in GQ South Africa, Vogue Italia, galleries and a number of other publications.

Building a creative business in Zimbabwe is traditionally viewed as a very bold move unless you are unmistakably talented. And even if you are a prodigy, convincing an African parent that you want to pursue an education in the arts, used to be, at least for my generation, a very difficult sell.

That all isn’t to say that parents and guardians are needlessly intransigent, not at all… What they are simply doing is funnelling their children into industries that they believe are ancillary to the economy and will place them in a position to a direct or predictable pathway to making a living. The alternative would be betting the farm on a career in what is a “subjective industry” where there are an innumerable number of factors that fight could see one succeed or fail.

That perceived precariousness is what usually sees the latter win out in most cases, because, as the story goes for many in Zimbabwe, you could do your passion as a hobby while perusing something that offers some measure of security. There is a lot of love in there, even though it can be imperceptible to the one on the receiving end.