Photography LABS
Photography by Brian Siambi
REimagining african narratives:
A 6-MONTH PHOTOGRAPHY FELLOWSHIP
APPLICATIONs CLOSED!
Are you a photographer or visual artist seeking deeper narratives and new strategies for your lens-based practice? Do you need editorial support and idea development for an ongoing project? Are you ready to expand your visual stories through publications, exhibitions, and multimedia formats?
Reimagining African Narratives is a 6-month photography fellowship fostering responsible collaboration from an African perspective. Through online and in-person workshops, participants receive expert mentorship to advance long-term projects, challenge traditional documentary formats, and engage a global audience through hands-on editing and publishing sessions.
This fellowship seeks applicants whose work intersects themes relating to the natural world, social impact and social justice through community-centred narratives about nature, conservation challenges, environmental impact and climate resilience.
In a world fragmented by inequality, this mentorship emphasizes ethical engagement with communities, the environment's crucial role, and the importance of diverse perspectives and knowledge sharing.
Fellows will work with expert mentors Alexa Becker (Germany), Rehab Eldalil (Egypt), and Federico Estol (Uruguay), all of whom specialise in creating impactful community-centred narratives.
The program focuses on responsibility, challenging stereotypes, and creating impactful publications.
Key topics include:
Ethics, aesthetics, and relevant theoretical discussions.
Developing narratives engaged with specific territories.
Decolonising visual strategies and representations of the Global South.
Innovative methodologies of community participation through photography.
Project Conceptualization, editing and construction of visual narratives.
Exploring different materials and distribution methods (publishing, exhibitions etc).
Strategies for audience development.
Reimagining African Narratives aims to foster responsible collaboration in photography, ensuring participants develop clear project statements and communicate their ideas confidently and effectively.
Workshops will begin online in early 2025, followed by in-person meetings at eKhaya the week before the NEWF Congress in March 2025 in Durban, South Africa. Additional online coaching will lead to a final group project, scheduled for completion in June 2025. NEWF will cover all flights, local transfers, accommodation, and meals for the in-person meetings.
| IMPORTANT DATES |
(All dates exclude travel days)
// 15 December 2024: Application Deadline
// January 2025: Shortlisted candidates notified
// Mid-January 2025 – March 2025: Four online workshops scheduled
// 25 - 30 March 2025: A week of In-person workshops at eKhaya.
// 31 March - 4 April 2025: 1 in-person session to take place during NEWF Congress March 2025.
// May - June 2025: Online follow-up sessions with mentors working towards a final project. Scheduled for completion in June 2025.
Shortlisted candidates may be contacted for an interview.
This request may include a 1 min video pitch (in English).
Selected participants will be notified of the final schedule.
GENERAL ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
// Applicants must be 18 years of age or older, from ANY African nationality, and preferably residing on the continent.
// Must be available to travel to South Africa for workshops and Congress, and committed to attending both online and in-person sessions.
// Must possess intermediate to advanced photography skills, with basic knowledge of editing and digital file preparation software.
// Must have a project in development or ready to be developed over the course of the workshops, with the option to include alternative photographic processes.
// Applicants are responsible for obtaining and paying for their own visas and covering home-country transport costs to the airport and back.
Application Requirements:
Meet Eligibility Criteria for the Workshop call-out
Must be dedicated to attend on-line sessions beginning in Mid - January, followed by in-person sessions from 25 March – 4 April 2025, and additional online sessions until June 2025.
Have a project in development, or ready to be developed over the course of the workshops, intersecting themes relating to the natural world, social impact and social justice through community-centred narratives about nature, conservation challenges, environmental impact and climate resilience.
Completed Application Form
Copy of your passport (Included with the form)
Links to your project imagery and artist statement about your work.
Motivation and/or a 2min video introducing yourself, what you do and how this opportunity may benefit your goals (also included in the form).
Participants will be selected on the strength of their project ideas, to be developed during the workshop sessions, their commitment to the schedule of online and in-person meetings, visual quality (creativity, technical skill, visual style), story relevance, representation, and approach.
Only applications that are submitted using the submission form on our website will be considered. Please do not email your application.
Applications will be accepted in English, French and/or Portuguese. All instruction will be given in English.
For any queries contact photolabs@newf.co.za
MEET THE MENTORS:
alEXA bECKER
Fellowship Mentor & Photobook Publishing Expert
Alexa Becker is a freelance consultant who advises and coaches photographers in many facets of their practice. Becker established her professional experience while working for more than a decade for German photography and art book publisher Kehrer Verlag. During this period, Becker gained insights into the photobook design and production processes as well as the PR and marketing aspects of book publication. Whilst being a freelance editor with Kehrer Verlag, Becker maintains close connections to other global publishing houses as well.
Since 2008, Becker has reviewed portfolios at leading international photography festivals including FotoFest and Rencontres d’Arles, served on the jury of important competitions, frequently led workshops focusing on the theme of books & publishing, and shared her voice in interviews and podcasts. She enjoys helping photographers and others appreciate the unique qualities that are present in their work, especially when discovering novel, genuine visions of the world.
“It is my passion to see the individual strength in any photography project and to help the artist develop their projects in a way that will reflect their authenticity in the work they are creating.”
— ALEXA BECKER
FEDERICO ESTOL
Fellowship Mentor & Award Winning Photographer
Federico Estol (b. 1981) is a Uruguayan photographer and artivist based in Montevideo. He focuses on visual storytelling in Latin America, with long-term projects centered on cultural identity, inequality and social justice. Estol is also the artistic director of SAN JOSÉ FOTO festival and editor of El Ministerio Ediciones photobook publishing house.
He holds a bachelor's degree in photography from the UPC-Barcelona Tech University and a degree in popular education from MFAL Franciscan Multiversity. His work has received numerous awards including Emergentes award at Encontros da Imagem festival (Portugal), New Visión award at Cortona on the Move festival (Italy), Photolucida award of the Oregon Center of Photography (USA). His photography has been exhibited globally in prestigious galleries, museums and festivals such as the Aperture Foundation (USA), Les Rencontres d'Arles (France), Addis Photo Fest (Ethiopia) and LagosPhoto Festival (Benin/Nigeria) among others.
Estol has been featured in publications like The Guardian, El País and the Financial Times. His works are part of several public and private collections, including the Museum of fine Arts Houston, and the Lishui Photography Museum in China, FOLA Latin American Photo collection in Buenos Aires and the Avant Garde Museum Switzerland.
“Storytellers from the Global South face the challenge of replacing the historical colonial gaze on their territories with new narratives of visual emancipation. These narratives are based on ethics that avoid the harmful practice of cultural exploitation, which has become commonplace in the industry, and instead, engage in transformative creativity to recover the ancestral aesthetics of the region. Efforts must also be made to reclaim the archives denied by hegemonic powers and propose counter-narratives that enrich our new postcolonial imaginations.”
— FEDERICO ESTOL
rehab eldalil
Fellowship Mentor & Award Winning Photographer
Rehab Eldalil is an Egyptian documentary photographer and educator whose work focuses on the broad theme of identity explored through participatory creative practices. Her work spans personal projects, NGO collaborations, and publications, focusing on human interest stories in the SWANA region.
Since 2013, Eldalil has pioneered collaborative approaches in visual storytelling, involving her subjects as protagonists in the creative process and challenging traditional documentary photography frameworks. In her practice, Eldalil explores mixed media to develop layered and comprehensive visual narratives that challenge the exoticism of communities including her own perspective as an African and Arabic woman.
Eldalil’s work has earned numerous prestigious awards and has been exhibited internationally. Her long-term project, The Longing Of The Stranger Whose Path Has Been Broken, developed under AFAC & amp; Magnum Foundation’s ADP Program, won the FotoEvidence W Award in 2022, leading to its publication in 2023. She has also received accolades such as the National Geographic Emergency Grant for Journalists (2020), Creative Activism Award (2021), the World Press Photo Regional Award (2022), the Premi Mediterrani Albert Camus Award (2022) and Foam Talent (2024). Her latest collaborative project, From the Ashes I Rose, created in partnership with Médecins Sans Frontières and Cortona on the Move was debuted in July 2024.
“I’m drawn to topics that challenge linear narratives and oriental ideologies[…] I want to prove that the future of photography and visual storytelling is in collaboration, in challenging the idea of authorship and inviting subjects to become protagonists of their own stories, and acknowledging that visual storytelling and photography will never be objective. And that when we give space to experiment and use different mediums, we can elevate how stories can be told.”
— REHAB ELDALIL
PEGGY SUE AMISon
Fellowship Facilitator, Developer & Art Director
Peggy Sue Amison is the Artistic Director of East Wing, a platform for contemporary photography founded in Doha, Qatar, in 2012. She is a curator, writer, producer, and consultant, collaborating with photographers, and festivals globally. Peggy Sue has curated exhibitions across Europe, as well as in Africa, The United States, and China. Her most recent projects include curating the LagosPhoto Festival 2023 in Benin and Nigeria, developing and curating the main exhibition for FORMAT Festival 2024 in Derby, UK, titled “FUTURE TENSE,” and curating “IMAGINE ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE,” a group exhibition at Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung in Berlin, Germany. She is also the developer and facilitator of the upcoming “Reimagining African Narratives: A 6-Month Photography Fellowship” organized for NEWF in Durban, South Africa (January – June 2025).
Peggy Sue is the past Artistic Director of Sirius Art Centre in Ireland (2001 – 2014), and a founding Board Member of the Belfast Photography Festival in N. Ireland (2012 – 2016). Originally from the United States, Peggy Sue lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
