Alon Skuy is a photojournalist born in Johannesburg, South Africa now based in Miami, Florida.
After completing a course at The Market Photo Workshop, he began working as a photographer for some of the country’s largest publications. He later moved on to be Chief Photographer of the Sunday Times and The Times in South Africa, focusing on issues relating to inequality, conflict, resilience and life on the fringes of society.
Skuy’s career has been defined by his depth and range as a news and documentary photographer. He is noted for his coverage of the 2012 Marikana Massacre, said to be the most lethal use of force by South African security forces against its own civilians since The Sharpeville Massacre of 1976, his long term work around the scourge of xenophobic violence, and his intimate portrayal of sub culture.
Skuy is the recipient of numerous local and international awards, including recognition by the World Press Photo Foundation, and multiple awards from the Picture of the Year International (POYI). He won first place in the News category of the POYI awards in 2015 for his work on the unrest at the Marikana Mine in South Africa. Then, in 2016 and 2017, he achieved third and second place, respectively, in POYI’s Newspaper Photographer of the Year category. In 2020, Skuy was awarded Photographer of the Year, Local in POYI. He is the recipient of 9 Standard Bank Sikuvile Awards, and multiple Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards in the photography category.
Skuy is a recipient of the Ruth First Fellowship for Photojournalism at the prestigious University of the Witwatersrand for his photographic essay ‘Living Inside A Bridge’ (2008).
Skuy has mentored young photographers and has previously hosted a workshop, in conjunction with World Press Photo, at The Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg, to give photographers an opportunity for real life experience of working in photojournalism and documentary photography.
For more than a decade, Skuy has documented xenophobia in South Africa, and together with photographer James Oatway, published a book on the subject in 2021, entitled [BR]OTHER. The book received an Award of Excellence during the 80th Pictures of the Year International Awards, in the Photography Book of the Year category.
In 2022, Skuy published MARiKANA 2012/2022, a body of work commemorating a decade since the Marikana Massacre, a watershed moment in South Africa’s history.
Skuy is currently an iWitness Fellow at Florida International University(FIU).