We are thrilled to announce BOHBOH: A Familiar Stranger, the debut solo exhibition by British-Malawian photographer Gift JR Gwambe, curated by Orphée Kashala. The exhibition is presented at Copeland Gallery in Peckham and runs from 27/08 to 01/09, 2025. Join us for an opening event on 28/08/2025 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm.
BOHBOH: A Familiar Stranger marks a significant step in Gwambe’s evolution from fashion and editorial photography into a socially and artistically engaged practice. Centred around his first return to Malawi in 2016, the exhibition captures the emotional complexity of reconnecting with family, place, and memory.
Shot on medium-format Kodak film with a 1975 Mamiya 645, the photographs move through three key sites: Church, Village, and Home, featuring members of Gwabe’s extended family. Gwambe’s work explores the bittersweet tension of feeling both familiar and unfamiliar in a once-known place. Intimate documentary scenes blur with humanist portraiture, revealing the harmony and joy of daily life in rural and suburban Malawi.
The exhibition unfolds across large-scale photographs, archival material, moving image, installation, and sound, forming a multi-sensory reflection on cultural hybridity and heritage. The casual Malawian greeting “Boh Boh” becomes a conceptual anchor—simultaneously welcoming and estranged, known and unknown.
Hosted in Peckham, a neighbourhood deeply informed by diasporic cultures, BOHBOH: A Familiar Stranger resonates with local and global audiences alike. It weaves personal narrative into a collective exploration of identity and return, expanding conversations around the diasporic experience.
