West Africa – PHOTOS TELL STORIES

Posted on March 3, 2020March 19, 2020 by Jason Florio & Helen Jones-Florio

New work from ‘Gambia – victims, and resisters’ series

New work from our long form multi-media project –‘The Gambia – Victims and Resisters’: The family of Lt Ebou Lowe. Ebou was disappeared and executed by members former Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh’s hit squad, the ‘Junglers’, after he was accused of being part of a coup attempt in 2006 to overthrow the dictatorial Jammeh regime.

#Portraits4PositiveChange

New work from ‘Gambia – victims, and resisters’ series: LT. Ebou Lowe’s daughter, Amie Lowe ©Jason Florio / Helen Jones-Florio

Ebou Lowe’s daughter, Amie Lowe, photographed in her father’s room, left unchanged since he was disappeared in 2006 – “I grew up not knowing the love of a father. I was only three years old when he disappeared, so I don’t remember him. I only know him through what people have told me, that he was a good man, and some say he was a hero.”

‘Gambia – victims, and resisters’

Ebou Lowe’s sister, Zainab Lowe-Baldeh – “The road to justice is a long one for us but we hang tight. Ebou Lowe was a pillar to the family and a father of four, and was taken without a trace…knowing what has happened from the Truth Commission (TRRC) feels like a needle in a haystack.” Zainab is the co-founder of the Gambia Centre for Victims of Human-Rights Violations – a victim support group, now with over one thousand registered members.

Photography exhibition - portraits ©Jason Florio/Helen Jones-Florio from 'Gambia - victims, and resisters of the Yahya Jammeh regime, The Gambia, West Africa — ‘The Duty to Remember’ a Memorialisation Project and Photography exhibition, The Gambia – portraits ©Jason Florio/Helen Jones-Florio from ‘Gambia – victims, and resisters’ of the Yahya Jammeh regime, The Gambia, West Africa, in collaboration with ANEKED

The exhibition runs through March 24th, 2020, at the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC museum gardens), Banjul. It is free and open to all. Please visit the museum website for opening hours. A selection of portraits, from the ‘Gambia – victims, and resisters’ series are being exhibited, in a collaboration with ANEKED (African Network against Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances) NGO.

The Photographer, and the Producer – Jason Florio & Helen Jones-Florio, respectively. Image courtesy Joanna Demarco

#Portraits4PositiveChange

March 2020 – Currently in The Gambia, West Africa

Assignment queries and image licensing – Contact here

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@jasonflorio / @floriotravels / @jasonflorio_photoprints / @doors_helenjonesflorio – Instagram

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Posted on February 13, 2020March 19, 2020 by Jason Florio & Helen Jones-Florio

Redux Pictures features: ‘Gambia – victims, and resisters’ ©Jason Florio/Helen Jones-Florio

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“The Gambia – Victims & Resisters” Jason Florio (@jasonflorio) on-going multimedia series in collaboration with Helen Jones-Florio. Read below for a full description of the project. Link in bio to view more of this series and Jason’s work. … The Gambia – Victims & Resisters The Gambia, West Africa is a popular winter-sun holiday destination for Europeans. But, most tourists have little idea of the dark and shattered underbelly of 'The Smiling Coast of Africa', as the Gambia is fondly called. From 1994 -2017 President Yahya Jammeh ruled the Gambia as his own fiefdom, crushing dissent, and opposition with brutality. His personal hit squad and National Intelligence Agency carried out tortures, assassinations, and acts of sexual violence with impunity – journalists were gunned down and disappeared, students shot in cold blood, and even his own cousins were murdered on his order. The portraits and collected testimonies are part of an ongoing body of work to tell the stories of the victims and resisters of Jammeh’s 22 year dictatorship. The work aims to expose the wide-reaching forms and scale of human rights abuses under the Jammeh's regime – to create a historical archive and as a tool for advocacy.

A post shared by Redux Pictures (@reduxpictures) on Feb 11, 2020 at 9:23am PST

Huge thanks to my agents, Redux Pictures, for featuring an on-going body of work, ‘Gambia – victims, and resisters’, in collaboration with Helen Jones-Florio

Jason Florio

Photographer & Filmmaker

#Portraits4PositiveChange

February 2020 – Currently in The Gambia, West Africa

Assignment queries and image licensing – Contact here

floriophoto.com

@jasonflorio / @floriotravels / @jasonflorio_photoprints / @doors_helenjonesflorio – Instagram

Jason Florio / floriotravels – Vimeo | Motion/Jason Florio

floriophotoNYC – Twitter

PhotosTellStories – FB

Posted on January 30, 2020March 19, 2020 by Jason Florio & Helen Jones-Florio

Al Jazeera – ‘Still reeling from the Jammeh years, Gambians wait for justice’ Documentary

Al Jazeera: Still reeling from the Jammeh years, Gambians wait for justice – ‘I Cannot Bury My Father’ Documentary

#ICANNOTBURYMYFATHER

A short documentary about the 56 West African migrants forcibly disappeared and killed in 2005 in Gambia by security forces on orders of ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh. The film follows Isaac Mensah, one of the victim’s sons, who shares the family’s account of how his father’s death/disappearance continues to take an emotional toll on the family; and his journey to more answers.

Watch the full documentary – ‘I Cannot Bury My Father’ – Director of Photography, Jason Florio

#ICANNOTBURYMYFATHER

Director & Producer – Nana-Jo Ndow/ANEKED

Presenter – Isaac Mensah

Director of Photography – Jason Florio

Assistant Producer & Second Camera – Festus Jackson Davis

Editor – Gabriel Baron

Animator – Alexis Stern

Translator & Advisor – Zusong Tidana

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January-February 2020 – Currently in The Gambia, West Africa

Assignment queries and image licensing – Contact here

floriophoto.com

@jasonflorio / @floriotravels / @jasonflorio_photoprints / @doors_helenjonesflorio – Instagram

Jason Florio / floriotravels – Vimeo | Motion/Jason Florio

floriophotoNYC – Twitter

PhotosTellStories – FB

Posted on January 21, 2020January 21, 2020 by Jason Florio & Helen Jones-Florio

Photos Tell Stories: Photojournalism Workshop for IOM, The Gambia – with Jason Florio/Helen Jones-Florio

Photos Tell Stories: Photojournalism Workshop for IOM, The Gambia – field work, with journalists, Soulayman Ceesay and Louise ‘Tina’ Alsan, photographing returnee, Buba. Image © Jason Florio

Our Photos Tell Stories Photojournalism Workshop for IOM, in The Gambia, began last week with a group of young Gambian journalists, selected by the International Organisation for Migration. Our first day, spent in the classroom, included an introduction to photojournalism, and technical skills, with photographer and filmmaker, Jason Florio. He also shared his work of over 18 months aboard a rescue ship – for the NGO, MOAS – where he documented multiple rescues, in the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. IOM’s Communication’s Officer, Miko Alazaz, also presented to the class IOM’s ethics of interviewing and photographing returnees of ‘the backway‘.

@Jason Florio/MOAS.EU — Eritrean Yosef Goitom AKA King Josee helps caryy a baby to safety on the RHiB. Rescue of 369 migrants. This was the first rescue of the 2015 MOAS Mission. Image ©Jason Florio ‘Destination Europe’ award-winning images

*Photos Tell Stories: Photojournalism Workshop for IOM.* Day 1 – all set up and ready to go. Image © Helen Jones-Florio

“Our workshop with photographers, and filmmakers, Jason Florio & Helen Jones-Florio , this week allowed photojournalists to learn both technical skills and migration dynamics in The Gambia—then headed out to gather empowering and dignifying photos of returnees.” IOM

*Photos Tell Stories: Photojournalism Workshop for IOM, The Gambia. Field work, with Malick Saine, and Bubacarr Jallow – photographing returnees* who work as drivers out of Tippa Garage, Bakoteh. Image ©Jason Florio

For the remainder of the week, we headed out with the journalists to interview and photograph young Gambian’s who IOM had helped to come back home from Libya, to The Gambia.

*Photos Tell Stories: Photojournalism Workshop for IOM, The Gambia* – *field work, with journalists, Sulayman Ceesay and Louise ‘Tina’ Alsan. Image © Jason Florio*

*Photos Tell Stories: Photojournalism Workshop for IOM, The Gambia*. Field work, with journalist, Isatu Bokum – photographing returnee, Fatou. Image ©Helen Jones-Florio

Huge thanks to all the journalists involved in the Photos Tell Stories photography workshop – who have produced some incredible work, over the past week – and, to IOM for inviting us to present the workshop. Respect and gratitude, to all the returnees, their friends and family, who agreed to share their very personal stories with us, along with allowing the journalists to photograph them.

The IOM Photojournalism Workshop participants, with Jason Florio and Helen Jones-Florio – L-R: HJF, Malick Saine, Louise ‘Tina’ Alsan Davis, Sulayman Ceesay, Bubacar Jallow, Isatu Bokum, Jason Florio, Senegambia Hotel, The Gambia, January 2020

The journalists’ images will be part of a forthcoming IOM photography exhibition, about the returnees who they have aided with their reintegration back into Gambian society – more news on the exhibition date, coming soon.

The Florios – Jason & Helen