South African photographer Sabelo Mlangeni has won the James Barnor prize, an annual award recognising artists from different regions of Africa, with the winner announced at Arles. The recognition highlights a body of documentary work spanning nearly three decades that focuses on community, intimacy and everyday life, much of it depicting marginalised and queer subjects rarely centred in mainstream photography.

Mlangeni, who works largely in black and white, describes the South African "cameraman" as someone embedded in local life rather than a detached observer, and his series reflect that immersive approach. Isivumelwano reimagines wedding and union imagery with a nod to diverse sexual orientations and gender roles; "I Have Stopped Time" portrays queer and rural communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and Umlindelo wamaKholwa explores Zionist church congregations in South Africa, a movement of which the artist is himself a part. Curators and writers praise his practice as one of deep devotion, empathy and long commitment, often spending weeks or months with the communities he photographs.