Since completely the inaugural ‘Photos Tell Stories: teaching photography – a visual language‘ workshops, in The Gambia, West Africa, Jason Florio and I have worked on a number of diverse assignments, here in West Africa – a couple of them together, just over the border into the Casamance, Southern Senegal, for NGO Concern Universal, and then north over the border into Senegal for the New York Times, covering a story about a football academy (conveniently timely!). Jason then flew off to Sierra Leone, to shoot a story about ethical diamond mining for ‘Oprah‘ Magazine; and he recently returned from Turkey and Spain, where he was on assignment for PepsiCo, about agriculture (yet to be published).
‘Camped on the rock, post potential-mutiny, I was now self-medicating with palm-wine, and concluded it was a fine lubricant to complement the bowl of noodles and some mystery meat a young local Bassari boy brought to us. I would like to say, that huddled around a bowl of possible monkey meet on such a Christian holy day...’ words and images by Jason Florio. Please click on the image below to read the whole story.
We’ll be updating again soon…with more Photos Tell Stories news of what we are up to. In the meantime, you might like to check out our FB page, twitter, and Instagram, for photos and news.
To read the full article, please click here or on the above image
Great to see a review of the Photos Tells Stories exhibition in Gambia’s Daily Observer newspaper. It’s just a shame that they didn’t use any of our Gambian students images, which we sent to them.
However, you can see them by reading on through the blog or clicking on the various menu links in the header – i.e. ‘Photos Tell Stories Students Work‘. See more press here.
We arrived in The Gambia, West Africa, early December, 2013, by invitation from the US Embassy, Banjul, to teach a series of photography workshop – ‘Photos Tell Stories: teaching photography – a visual language‘. Our aim was to show young Gambian students, between the ages of 13-20 years old, how to see their ‘home‘ – the villages and towns which they live – through the eye of a camera. And, more importantly, to show us – as guests on their home turf – how they viewed their environment and how they wanted it to be portrayed.
Jason Florio – photographer and workshop tutor – YMCA, Fajara, The Gambia, West Africa
After a morning in the classroom, where Jason took them through the history of photography – showing the work of renowned international photographers, past and present – and various techniques, we gave them the cameras and sent them out, to photograph. Most of the students had never used a camera, other than perhaps snapshots with their phones.
The workshops culminated in a very successful exhibition opening at Alliance Française, in May, in The Gambia – where around 200 people, including most of the students from all over Gambia, were in attendance, along with national media.
Looking back over the inaugural of ‘Photos Tell Stories: teaching photography – a visual language‘ workshops, which we taught earlier this year here in The Gambia, West Africa (thanks to the US Embassy, Banjul, for partnering with us). And, we can happily say that we are still as impressed by the quality of the young students photography – especially because almost all of them had never used a camera before.
‘Photos Tell Stories‘ photography workshop: The Kombos region, The Republic of The Gambia, West Africa – students were chosen from various senior secondary schools in the region.
A slideshow selection of work from the students – taken during their portraiture class with P.T.S.‘s photographer and tutor, Jason Florio, and their ‘Home‘ work assignment:
You may also like to check out our ‘Behind-the-Scenes‘ FB page, where you can see Jason Florio and the Photos Tell Stories students during the workshops.
‘Photos Tell Stories‘ – photography workshop in Kembujeh village, The Gambia: students were chosen from the Aila Senior Secondary School. Following is a slideshow selection of their images.
The culmination of the above workshops was an exhibition of sixty prints – ‘Photographs of The Gambia by Gambians‘ – one print from each student’s collection, at Alliance Française, in The Gambia. The attendance at the opening night far exceeded what we had hoped for – with national media coverage (TV & press).
PHOTOS TELL STORIES - documentary | filmmaking | photography | people | travel 