Biography

amplifying African voices and expanding the conversation around representation, identity, and contemporary African visual culture. ​

Michelle Vimbainashe Jayne Juru is a Zimbabwean-born, Berlin-based multidisciplinary artist working across photography, painting, collage, graphic design, and motion design. Her practice explores themes of identity, cultural memory, and narrative reclamation, with a particular focus on African perspectives within contemporary art.

After moving to Berlin to study photography, Michelle noticed that the history of photography presented in academic contexts was largely Eurocentric, with limited representation of African photographers and visual traditions. This realization became the foundation for her research and artistic practice.

Inspired by the storytelling of Tamary Kudita and the visual activism of Zanele Muholi, Michelle developed her thesis project “The Role of Contemporary African Photography in Redefining Post-Colonial Narratives.”

Her photographic series “Reclaiming the African Gaze” examines how Southern Africans are represented in mainstream media versus how they represent themselves. The project seeks to challenge inherited colonial narratives while celebrating dignity, beauty, and cultural agency.

The work was awarded Best in Program at the University of Europe for Applied Sciences and is currently exhibited in Berlin and included in the university’s UEsearch archive of outstanding graduate projects.

Michelle continues to use her practice to amplify African voices and expand the global conversation around representation, identity, and contemporary African visual culture.