Earlier this week, I attended a panel discussion on Diversity in Photojournalism at theprintspace. The speakers on the panel were Anna Gordon, Suzanne Plunkett and Chin We, all women photographers who were invited to speak about the challenges of working in a male-dominated field of photography and also, why there is lack of diversity within the industry. This event was organised by Photo Forum and it was lead by Helen Healy, the Head of Pictures at the Financial Times.
Here are a few stats that were discussed in the forum:
Research conducted by the University of Stirling in the UK and the World Press Photo Foundation found that at least 70% of women photographers face discrimination in the workplace.
And only 1% of participating photographers in the research classify themselves as Black (makes you wonder how many of those were women).
Furthermore, women will certainly face some form of harassment during their career as a photographer.
Also, women drop out of the photography industry after university even though they tend to be more female students than male.
You will also find that major professional bodies like AOP, NUJ, RPS, etc. have less than 30% female members.
Here is a snippet of what the panellists had to say with regards to their experiences working as photographers.
Suzanne Plunkett – “The Associated Press (AP) sent me to Afganistan. My mission was to photograph the female angle. My editor said that because all of the photographers that had been sent there during the war were men, they had no photographs of women. Here I am in Kabul in 2002 and it was just after the fall of the Taliban, many Afgan men did not know how to deal with an influx of self-assured female journalists. Their confusion resulted in sexual assaults in crowded places. Myself and many of my female counterparts were frequently groped while working. And not just in Afganistan. I try not to think about it. I just remove their hands (from my private places) and continue working.” – Follow her on Instagram @suzanne_plunkett
Anna Gordon – “While Suzanne was in Afganistan, I was pounding the mean streets of Enfield as a trainee at a local newspaper. A random man stopping me on the roadside to explain, “You shouldn’t change lenses in the street. You’ll get dust on them.” A helpful PR stating, “I’ve set everything up for you. All you have to do is press the button.” A subject I was photographing saying, “I feel like you are about to kiss me.” Numerous people asking me, “Do you actually make a living our of photography?” Explaining what a breast pump was to Bill Clinton’s security detail. Negotiating a fee for a shoot to commemorate the Holocaust while locked in a toilet in my child’s nursery. Few of my experiences as a female photographer.” – Follow her on Instagram @annaggordon
Chin We – “From my colleagues, it is very difficult to get into photography through the art world. There is a lack of diversity for people who look like me. If more people of colour are seen to be doing these kinds of stories, things will change. For example, the New York Times commissioned a white photographer to go to Africa to feature a story. They need to commission local photographers , because the story would look different from how a white photographer would capture it. African Journalist database has over 400 photographers living in the continent, but the New York Times prefer to fly a white photographer to Africa. The problem also is that the gate keepers are white and male and if they are not willing to hire black photographers, it’s not going to work.” – Follow her on Instagram @chinw_e
Women Photograph has collected data on photographs published and how many of those are by women photographs. Here is a glimpse of data collected from this year alone from US-based publications only.
I know there is still a lot to be done to make the industry more accepting of women and photographers from minority groups. At least conversations are being had and changes are happening, albeit slowly.
In the meantime, I will leave you with this observation by a female photographer who took part in the research by the University of Stirling in the UK and the World Press Photo Foundation.
“I think that how photojournalists are employed in today’s era of rapidly rising living costs — almost exclusively as private contractors — without any parental leave, health or pension benefits, dramatically influences the people who are able to choose to work in the field over the long term. I look around our industry and it’s true, I see a lot of men, but mostly what I see is people with no kids. I feel like the gender makeup is more equal among photographers in their 20’s but it becomes much less balanced among photojournalists in their 30’s and beyond, with men making up the majority. These men though, who make up the majority of older photojournalists, at least the ones I know, are for the most part, childless, or they have a partner who is the primary parent, or stays at home full time. If I look at my female colleagues, many of them are in the same position.”
If you are interested, you can read the whole report here.
What Happened to the Rest of the Map? (2019) – Part of the ‘Remnants’ series
I was travelling back home with my kids on the Central Line and when I looked up, I saw that a huge chunk of the line map was missing. Someone went out of their way to rip out a whole map and cut/left out these fours stations. It makes you ask loads of questions. Why did they do this? Is this some kind of vandalism? Why did they leave these four stations? And why only four stations? Why not one, two or just the whole map minus these four stations?
Like I said, loads of questions.
Then again, it made me think perhaps this person just wanted people to look at it and smile. I certainly did and that is why I took the photo. I showed it to my kids and they were equally amused. And if that was their goal, well, they succeeded.
I hope by sharing this photo I too have made you smile. My shameless attempt of paying it forward through someone else’s attempt of making the world a much happier place.
What a year 2016 has been. I bet most of you would like to see the back of it and hope that 2017 will be much much better.
Well, the last time I did this review, I was under the assumption that I would attempt to blog as much as I would. I guess I should stop talking typing about it and just get on with it.
I know, I know. You are supposed to review what you have blogged about in 2016. Truth be told, I have only put up like 9 posts in 2016 and I will be including some if it in my review. So I thought I just put up what I have actually been up to in 2016 with a few insights here and there.
With that said, I have actually had a busy 2016, much of which I have shared on my Instagram feed, but I will share some of those highlights here with a few new images.
It is kind of a long blog post as I will be covering all 12 months of 2016 (even if I did nothing photographically that month).
So here goes…
January 2016
Whilst in the studio working on a project that never saw the light of day, I got a chance to photograph Aster, who is also a photographer. You can follow her on Instagram or check out her work here.
Aster, 2016
It was whilst working on the project I mentioned above that I made a conscious decision to spend a lot of time in the studio just getting to learn more about lighting, what works and what doesn’t. Basically, I and a few friends were on a mission to build our studio lighting confidence in a way, like this image of myself taken with the help of my photographer friend, Michael Tubi.
Elsie, 2016
Also, this gave me a chance to work on my people skills whilst taking their picture. It is not an easy fete, making someone feel comfortable in front of a lens. It also made me learn a few things about myself as a photographer and what I enjoy doing.
My time in the studio also gave me ideas on how to work towards my final project my degree and future projects moving forward. 2016 was definitely looking up.
February 2016
The sporting calendar or should I say, my sporting photography calendar for the year started in February with the Rugby Six Nations tournaments kicking it off.
I managed to get access to a few of the England Women’s matches that happened at The Twickenham Stoop and Twickenham Stadium.
London, UK. 27th February 2016. A lineout during the Women’s Six Nations match between England and Ireland at Twickenham. England won the match 13 – 9. Credit: Elsie Kibue
On top of this, I was busy researching, planning and working out my final year project (FMP) for my degree. So anything I did henceforth formed as part of my research.
March 2016
By now it was already settled that I would be focusing my FMP on ‘Women in Sports’ and I was experimenting with different concepts. This image I took of some of the University of Westminster netball team before they got ready for a match at the campus sports hall.
UniWest Netball Team, 2016.
At the same time, when the opportunity arose, I was back in the studio building my portraits portfolio. I got to work with a singer, songwriter, Vicky Sola in collaboration again with Michael Tubi.
Vicky Sola, 2016.
April 2016
London Marathon month was here and I again got access to cover the press events leading up to marathon day itself. I always enjoy myself when I am out and about photographing sports athletes. This year, one of my images ended up being used on the front cover of a newspaper in Scotland. My first ever FRONT PAGE.☺️ One of the highlights of the year.
ACTUAL IMAGE – London, UK. 24th April 2016. Callum Hawkins first of the British men elite runners to cross the finish line during Sunday’s Virgin Money London Marathon. Callum Hawkins crossing the finish line first with a time of 02:10:52 coming 8th overall. Credit: Elsie Kibue
Newspaper Usage / Tearsheet
May 2016
May is always a busy one for me as it is my birthday month and the London Rugby Sevens Series comes into town for its final leg. A weekend of rugby sevens usually takes its toll on me that it takes me a few days to recover after the tournament. I thought I do something different from the norm and I ended up taking the Kenya 7s team photos with my Instax Mini 8 camera and they got featured in the Instax UK HQ Instagram account.
I suppose this is where it all started, my ongoing project of getting instant portraits of athletes and they get to sign the image as soon as it is printed.
Also, a few of my images were turned into illustrations by an artist based in Kenya, Dennis Muiruri.
Willy Ambaka – Actual Image & Illustration
Biko Adema – Actual Image & Illustration
June 2016
This month was one hectic month. It was the month that was full of mixed emotions. It was the month that the Degree Show happened. It came and went by so fast, that the months leading up to this felt like a weird blurry past.
My ‘Women in Sports’ project was complete.
I was actually gutted by one thing though…the prints refused to stay up on the wall. It was a good and bad thing. No one foresees such circumstances, but you just have to roll with the punches and exhibit the best way that you can. So, they ended up on the floor.
And this is how when the Travers Smith staff came by to see our work, found them and something about my project made them pick it for the CRS Art Programme their firm started in 2015. Boy was I beside myself when I got the news that my work was selected. It had been an emotional few months leading up to the exhibition as I was really struggling to come up with a concept/project that I would be on going beyond my degree.
My continued collaboration with Frenglish (French & English) Artist & Producer, Man Like Nells happened. We went back to the studio to shoot some more images for promotional work.
Nells EP PhotoshootNells EP Photoshoot
The second image ended up being used in an interview Man Like Nells had with MOBO later in the year in December. You can read the whole interview here.
July 2016
With the rollercoaster that June was, I just decided to enter a photo competition, enjoy the summer, my kids, prepare my prints for Travers Smith and wait for the Olympic games to begin really. I unconsciously ‘put away’ my camera.
August 2016
This is the month that literally was taken over by the Olympic Games and dissertation planning/writing strategies.
September 2016
The academic year in the UK starts and I am basically planning my next few months of writing schedules and what I can also do in-between to keep my photography mojo going. So I organised a few photo shoots with the Men’s Basketball team from University, but this ended up happening in October once all the freshers were settled and teams finalised. So, I didn’t do much photography wise other than a store opening in my area…
Visited the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fairin Somerset House, saw some artwork and also researched for my dissertation as I would be writing on African Photography. I also managed to attend the official launch of the England Women’s Rugby Team, aptly named the RED ROSES.
It was also the month the winners for the MyAfrica Photo Competition were announced. Unfortunately, I did not win, but my submitted image was one of the few selected to be featured in the Mo Ibrahim Foundation competition gallery.
October 2016
Other than the pressure of writing a 10k paper, I managed to squeeze in a few days of photo shoots. As planned, the University’s photo shoot went ahead as the UK continued to bask in an extended summer of sorts.
November 2016
The month the World Rugby Awards came into town as well as the World Rugby ConfEx.
I took the opportunity at the WR Awards to continue on with my Instax project. This time shot using the Fujifilm Instax Mini 70 that I bought so I could gift the Mini 8 to my son.
December 2016
Not much happened in December as this was and still is my current mood…(throwing in parenting into the mix).
I decided to ‘chill out’ and plan for the new year. So I will end this review with the gem I created with my heartbeats. After all, I do consider myself a mumtog (a mother and photographer).
2016 has certainly been interesting, but I am really looking forward to what 2017 has in store.
What would they like to see more of in 2017? Please let me know by leaving a comment below.
Thank you for reading this to the end and I wish you all the best in the year to come.
Last year, I bought a Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 camera. My intention was to get kids at my son’s school excited about photography during the Winter Fair, but that was a bust 😔.
I guess, I was just too excited and I failed to do my photobooth homework well.
With more practice, I will definitely be back.
Fast forward to May, 2016, having not used the camera for a while due to other commitments, I decided I would actually make use of my Instax camera, but I needed a challenge. Shooting using film, instant or otherwise, in this day and age of digital photography is not cheap. Anyway, I dusted off my cool blue Instax Mini 8 camera, bought my film from Amazon UK and came up with an idea to shoot using the film.
The Kenya Sevens team were going to be in town for London 7s and I thought I would do my own version of the squad profiles using the camera. And this was the result…
There was a lot of buzz from this image on my Instagram and I knew I was on to something. Even Fujifilm UK reposted my image on their feed.
I actually even used the camera to collect signed prints from a few people during London 7s which I will be posting on my Instagram feed in due course. One of which I kept from the Kenya 7s team – Collins Injera – as he became the ‘All Time Try Scorer’ of all time in the Sevens World Series.
What next? I have something planned for June using my Instax Mini 8 and I am so excited about it. My son even wants one now. So I may just upgrade to the Instax Mini 70 in Island Blue and gift the Mini 8 to him on his 6th birthday.
So, some time last year I made the bold statement above and put it on my Instagram feed – which is private at the moment until they find a way of allowing multiple accounts like Twitter, but I digress.
Where was I? Aaahh yes, the bold statement I made towards the end of 2012.
So….I have been using the logo below for a while and I thought it needed a change.
From creating one using the simplicity of text, I went all Illustrator on the new one. I wanted something clean and simple. And this is what I came up with and I am really pleased.
Keeping the same colours as the as the old logo, I wanted a ‘mark’ that would work as a whole or on its own. When I say as a whole, I mean with the photography included or not.
So, I can safely say that I can do a little bit of work on Illustrator. I am not a pro, but I do try as I have used it a few times. Like when I was asked to create a banner to be printed for an event (see pic):
Image courtesy of AEP (African Event Photographers)
With that in mind, I went ahead and cashed in on my free moocards code courtesy of Westphoto. I ordered some biz cards which I also designed on Illustrator. I had trouble converting the saved files to business card format, but with help from Moo, I finally got my cards printed and within days I had them with me. All I had to pay for was postage, as it was not included.
Card packaging-niffty huh! The cards in all their glory
I was pleased with my choice of cards (paper, size, design, etc), but they had one flaw….my design didn’t work on black matt surface. Good thing they were freebies, otherwise… All in all, I still have cards that I can pass round until they run out. And I love them.
