Venue sorted – the YMCA, Gambia – and now thanks for the heads-up from Peace Corps volunteer, Justin Jewett, about ‘Omar’s Peace Corp Kitchen‘, we have a cook for our Gambian students, during their Photos Tell Stories photography workshop. We’re looking forward to Omar’s chicken yassa for lunch tomorrow – we’ve heard only great things about his cooking!
We visited the local YMCA today – which will be the location for our inaugural ‘Photos Tell Stories : teaching photography – a visual language‘ – at least for the theory part of the course; as we will also be taking our young Gambian students out and about, with their FujiFilm cameras, to photograph whats around them.
We are really looking forward to seeing what the students will produce – once we get started with the main group on the 2nd January, 2014. Albeit a little behind schedule – a combination of ‘GMT’ (Gambia Meantime) and the holiday season. The pace is significantly more laid back here, compared to what we are used to in New York or London. And, although that can have it’s frustrations, it’s also one of the main reasons we keep getting drawn back to this part of the world. Each time, in the first few weeks of arriving – still in our metropolis-living mode of rushing around – it takes time to adjust, before we realize that we’ve spent half our working day hurrying up to wait! Like I said, GMT… thankfully, it’s kicking in, slowly but surely. As it always does.
‘Jason Florio’s travels around the Republic of the Gambia read like tales of adventure from centuries past. Florio, along with his wife, Helen Jones-Florio, had already traveled extensively in the West African country before they took a 600-mile walk all the way around it in 2009. The first recorded circumnavigation by foot of the Gambia turned out to be practice for the Florios’ next adventure: documenting the River Gambia.’ Read more here
Update: The Christmas holidays have delayed us slightly but we now have a start date for the inaugural Photos Tell Stories photography workshop in The Gambia, West Africa: 2nd January 2014.
We’re really looking forward to working with young Gambia students – we’re particularly excited about what they will produce once we give them free reign of the camera (BIG thanks to FujiFilm, USA, for the cameras).
An oldie but goldie, taken during our ‘Short Walk in the Gambian Bush – 930km African odyssey‘ in December 2009. We met this gentleman on the road – he seemed oblivious to the fact that he was wearing a santa hat in 95 degree heat! In fact, he made us feel instantly homesick for Christmas-time with our folks back home.
We are about to shut up shop for a few days – for Christmas – and from pre-production mode for our first photography workshop in The Gambia: Photos Tell Stories . We are off to stay with friends up at Sandele Eco Retreat (we are so fortunate to have great friends who live in sublimely peaceful places), in Kartong. However, we will be back ‘in town’ on Friday 27th, December, as we have been invited to present our ‘River Gambia Expedition‘ and ‘A Short Walk in the Gambian bush‘ work with host Alieu Sabally for his ‘Bantaba’ show on Paradise Radio – with ‘live radio coverage’ at Safari Garden Hotel, Fajara.
‘Presentation and live interview of the couple who went for a expedition to the source of the River Gambia by boat. And traveled around The Gambia by foot‘ (that’s us!) – blurb on that there flier Florio and Alieu are holding.
For anyone who might be in Fajara on Friday night, from 6pm-(?), come on down and give us a little support – I think you can even ask questions afterwards! There is buffet too (425D) for those who want to eat – cold Julbrew (local beer) for those who just want to drink.
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PHOTOS TELL STORIES - documentary | filmmaking | photography | people | travel 