D. M. Terblanche (b. 1998, Pretoria, South Africa) is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist working primarily in photography. Their practice focuses on narrative documentary and portraiture, drawing from storytelling traditions across media to explore both personal and constructed realities. They began with cellphone self-portraits, developing a preference for analog processes while centering portraiture as an intimate space for self-reflection and confronting the past.
Photography serves Terblanche as both personal and political, exploring queer identities and the disquiet following a late autism diagnosis. Their work channels vulnerability into imagery between introspection and distortion, addressing trauma and uncertainty with raw emotional honesty. Influences include Nan Goldin, Ren Hang, and Jo Ractliffe.
In 2025, a selection of their work was presented by Saint Laurent Babylone, as curated by Anthony Vaccarello, Paris, and they were selected for Gen Z: Shaping a New Gaze, an international group exhibition by Photo Elysée.
They were one of ten international winners of Magnum x Polaroid – Real Life is Not Black and White (2024), with work exhibited at Paris Photo 2024, and previously received the Emergentes 2023 – International Photography Award Encontros da Imagem. Their work has been featured in GUP Magazine's Fresh Eyes 2024 and Then There Was Us – Ones to Watch 2023. Terblanche is a longstanding member of Through the Lens Collective and participated in the PhMuseum Criticae Masterclass (2022/2023).