Instagram – Floriotravels – West Africa and more…

Along with updates we post on here, we’ll be adding our travel photos to our new Instagram page: floriotravels  – featuring photos from Jason Florio and myself  whether they be work, play, or simply day-to-day life scenes that capture our imagination. Please feel free to ‘follow‘

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At the moment, we are having a short hiatus from West Africa – a few thousand miles north, in the UK, visiting family and friends – recharging our batteries, ready to head back down there in a few weeks time. However, we sorely miss strolls on the beach…

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image © Jason Florio – Chinese fishing boat, Ghana Town beach, The Gambia, West Africa

 

Walking the dogs at dawn on deserted beaches…

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Image © Jason Florio – ‘White Tip’ Cape Point, The Gambia, West Africa

 

And, we particularly look forward to going back to work in the field…

whether it be ‘Photos Tell Stories: teaching photography – a visual language‘…

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Photography workshop students receive their Photos Tell Stories ‘Certificates of Attendance’ – Kembujeh village, The Gambia, West Africa © Jason Florio

 

Or on assignment…

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Image © Helen Jones-Florio – on assignment with Jason Florio for NGO Concern Universal in Casamance, Senegal

 

If you would like to receive the odd updates from us, then just add your email address to the box in the lefthand column.

More news coming soon.

The Florios – Helen & Jason

Photography assignments in West Africa – what the Florios have been up to lately

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).

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Image © Jason Florio

 

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Image © Jason Florio

 

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Image © Jason Florio

 

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Image © Jason Florio

 

We had a beautifully laid out feature in Sidetracked Magazine – all about our ‘River Gambia Expedition –1044km source-sea African odyssey‘

‘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.

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Sidetracked Magazine – Images © Jason Florio

 

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.

The Florios – Helen & Jason

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Helen Jones-Florio & Jason Florio

 

 

Press: ‘US photographers hold photo exhibition’ – Daily Observer, The Gambia, West Africa

 

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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.

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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 were also thrilled to see the feature about our ‘River Gambia Expedition‘ in Sidetracked Magazine – with a beautiful layout of Jason Florio’s images from the journey

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Image © Jason Florio

 

Photos Tell Stories – through the lens: Africa by Africans

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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.

YMCA, Fajara, The Gambia
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.

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Photos Tell Stories photography students with Jason Florio (center) and Helen Jones-Florio (right) at the exhibition opening night, Alliance Française, The Gambia, West Africa

If you are interested in hosting a Photos Tell Stories workshop – or have us present our previous work in West Africa (River Gambia Expedition; ‘A Short Walk in The Gambian Bush‘; ‘Makasutu – mecca in the forest‘), please check out ‘Book a Photography Workshop or Presentation with the Florios‘

The Florios – Helen & Jason

You may also like to check out ‘Students Work‘ and ‘Behind-the-Scenes‘.