THE Zimbabwe Association of Female Photographers (ZAFP) will on Friday host a public lecture / Q&A session with two of Africa’s prestigious photographers – Sydney Seshibedi and Neo Ntsoma at the Alliance Francaise in Harare.
BY Tinashe Sibanda
Ntsoma and Seshibedi are both award-winning photographers based in South Africa and the aim of the event is for local photographers to inspire and learn about new trends in photography.
“ZAFP is concerned with improving professional standards in general and women in particular and this public lecture is part of that effort,” said board chairperson Angela Jimu.
Seshibedi has been a photographer for over 11 years.
He worked for the Sunday Times for more than six years joined the Saturday Star, as a chief photographer where he stayed for one year before moving back to Rosebank to join The Times as a senior sports photographer, the position he still holds four years later.
He has won numerous awards in his home country for his sterling work and dedication to photography.
In 2000, Seshibedi was accepted as an intern at the Swedish daily newspaper, Västerbottens-Kuriren in Umea. He returned to South Africa three months later and began his distinguished career at the Sunday Times.
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Among the accolades he has since been awarded since joining the newspaper are the 2004 Premier Soccer League photographer of the season for his excellent work of the country’s professional football league.
Within the company he works for, Johnnic Communications (the owners of the Sunday Times) now known as Avusa, he has been named the winner of the “Media Star” award in 2004 and the Sunday Times “Best Photographer” for 2003.
In 2006 he won the second prize in the World Press photo sports singe category, the biggest and most prestigious in the field of photojournalism.
He was highly commended in the Mondi Shanduka awards in 2007. Ntsoma is an award-winning photographer from South Africa with 15 years of experience under her belt.
Before she started her own photographic company, she worked for one of the biggest newspapers in South Africa, The Star.
Her images have won recognition from CNN and National Geographic; appeared in Forbes Africa, London Telegraph, Time Magazine, and Washington Post, among others; and exhibited in Holland, Norway, Italy, France, India, Bangladesh, the United States and more.
Ntsoma was featured as one of six photographers in the Al Jazeera Artscape series The New African Photography and in 2006, she was mentioned in Media24, as one of the 100 most influential women, alongside Oprah Winfrey, Sheila Johnson and Indra Nooyi.
Furthermore, she has co-edited the book, Women by Women, which is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Women’s March. The largest demonstrations staged in South African history, 20 000 women of all races marched against the pass laws.
Ntsoma is recognised as one of the leading lights among the new breed of photographers in South Africa.
Fully cognisant of her status as a role model for young people, she lectures frequently, both within and outside South Africa. She is a regular speaker at Johannesburg’s Market Photo Workshop.
She has been a guest tutor at the New York International Centre for Photography (ICP), Stanford University in San Francisco as well as Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography in Bangladesh where she taught for a year.
She has served as judge on numerous photographic competitions, including the Fuji Film Press Awards.
She is also a member of the National Adjudicating Committee for the Sadc Media Awards as well as the National Arts Festival/Basa Arts Journalism Awards.
“We received funds from Hivos through Human Rights Fund and this lecture is part of the programme.
It will be followed by a two-day News and Documentary photography training workshop for members and a few non-members who also include men,” Jimu added.
Jimu also said photojournalism in Zimbabwe was a profession that is looked down upon, particularly in newsrooms and she has experience to that effect.
She said there was very little regard and appreciation for all the hard work that got into producing an image, not just a snapshot. “These days anyone who has a camera can call themselves a photographer but its not quite that simple.
There is a lot that one needs to know about conveying messages through an image,” she said.
Jimu said as ZAFP they were committed to changing attitudes and perceptions about professional photography by making people understand or at least appreciate the role of professionals.
Formed in 2011, the ZAFP through training projects, exhibitions and networking, has a vision to contribute to the professional development of Zimbabwe’s photographic industry by producing a legacy of highly qualified, competitive female photographers who are recognised for their work locally and internationally.
The public lecture will be free of charge and is open to all who are interested in photography- professionals, students and amateurs.
