The Edward Ruiz Mentorship is a mentorship programme, which has been established to help launch the career of a promising photographer. The mentorship awards the recipient with the financial and infrastructural support needed to develop a substantial body of photographic work over the course of a year. On adequate completion of the mentorship, the body of work will be exhibited as a solo exhibition at The Photo Workshop Gallery. The recipient also has the opportunity to work closely with a suitable mentor, who will provide guidance and direction on the intended project.
The recipient, in consultation with the Market Photo Workshop, will identify this mentor to help guide and develop the recipient’s proposed body of work. The mentor is a professional practicing photographer; past mentors have included Jo Ractliffe, Michelle Loukidis and David Goldblatt.

The grant allows the recipient to produce and exhibit a body of work, and will also assist in covering costs related to research, travel, and other supplies.

Applications must include the following:
• A comprehensive CV
• An existing portfolio of 12-20 photographs (As a single PDF file, minimum 150 dpi, no larger than 900×600 pixels)
• 500 words explaining you photographic interests and existing work
• A 1000 word project proposal

The project proposal should address the following areas:
• The focus, meaning and intention of the project
• The importance of the proposed project
• How you intend to manage your project

Selection of a candidate
• A panel of judges appointed by the Market Photo Workshop will participate in the selection process.
• Shortlisted candidates may be requested to come in for an interview.
• The judges need to be satisfied that the selected proposal has merit; that the candidate will be able to manage the project, and that he/she is likely to derive
lasting benefits from the mentorship.
• No correspondence with the judges may be entered into.

Deadline
• Applications close on Friday 29 July 2011 at 16h00.
• Shortlisted candidates and the successful applicant will be contacted in August 2011.
• The candidate must be able to begin work soon thereafter.

All applications must be submitted by email to molemom@marketphotoworkshop.co.za and copied to staceyv@marketphotoworkshop.co.za

A voluntary briefing session will be held at the Market Photo Workshop on Wednesday 6 July 2011 at 13h00. This briefing will cover the application, and proposal writing process. Applicants not residing in Johannesburg are encouraged to contact Molemo Moiloa on molemom@marketphotoworkshop.co.za with any queries.

Thandile Zwelibanzi, the Edward Ruiz Mentorship Recipient of 2010/2011, has produced a body of work entitled Still Existence, to open at The Photo Workshop Gallery on 3 August 2011. Some of the work has also been selected for the 2011 Bamako Encounters Photography Biennale and will be shown in Mali in October this year.

For more information please visit the website at www.marketphotoworkshop.co.za

The Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP) is proud to announce the launch of a Fellowship program that will send journalists to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban (COP17) in late 2011.

The Fellowships are open predominantly to journalists from developing countries, but journalists from the US and Russia are also welcome to apply.

Formed in 2007 by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN), Panos London and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the CCMP has brought developing country journalists to the annual UN climate summits over the past four years.

This has enabled them to cover the summit for their home media organizations, work with experienced and knowledgeable journalists from around the world, and gain a multifaceted understanding of climate change’s global impact. Numerous regional organizations also play a supporting role in the partnership.

As part of the fellowships, the CCMP will cover travel, lodging and daily subsistence expenses, arrange press accreditation at COP17, and provide other support services. The Fellows will benefit from a series of specially designed activities, including an orientation session, breakfast briefings, a field trip and a media clinic.

The CCMP fully respects the editorial independence of all journalists. Throughout the conference, Fellows are free to report as they see fit. We do require that Fellows attend the entire summit, provide copies or summaries of all the stories they file during COP17 for posting on our websites and that they show collegial attitude towards other Fellows. One of the main benefits of this program will be the opportunity for Fellows to exchange views and information with their journalistic peers from around the world.

Fellowship applications open June 6, 2011 and close June 30, 2011 at midnight EDT. All journalists working for media in a developing country, the US or Russia are eligible to apply.

Traditionally, we have only welcomed journalists from developing countries, but due to the challenges of reporting on climate change in the US and Russia, and the availability of funding for Fellows from these countries, we are opening this year’s Fellowships to US and Russian journalists, as well.

Criteria for evaluating applicants will include the prospective Fellow’s demonstrated interest in climate change issues; their audience; and the ability of the Fellowship to provide an opportunity for those journalists who might not otherwise have a chance to cover such events.

At the moment, we only have sufficient funding to bring a small number of Fellows, but are actively working to increase our support in order to increase those numbers. In addition to selecting Fellows whom we hope to announce in September, therefore, we’ll also create a waitlist from which we can select additional journalists as more funding becomes available.

Although we expect there will be a diverse range of experience and regions represented among the Fellows, one goal of this program is to reach audiences – particularly marginalized communities – who are currently underserved when it comes to climate information.

Any queries may be submitted to ccmp@internews.org. Initial funding for this program is provided by private US foundations, including the Kendeda Fund and the Smart Family Foundation.

Applicants will be required to:
• Complete and submit an online application form before the 30 June 2011 deadline.
• Provide a support letter from their editor, producer, or supervisor

[Note: Freelance journalists are welcome to apply, but must provide a letter of support indicating that their stories will be published or broadcast]

• Provide two samples of their work, published within the last 12 months
• Have a valid passport that will not expire before June, 2012

Thank you to all those who signed the petition or published articles to raise the profile of Hammerl’s alleged capture. We mourn the loss of a fellow African and fine photographer who was serving to inform the world about events unfolding in Libya.

A fuller reports in The Atlantic and BBC.

Newscom

Stock Index Online

Panos Pictures

British Picture Libraries Association

The Media Online

CEPIC

British Journal of Photography

New York Times Lens Blog

The award ceremony was held at the prestigious Musiekgebouw in Amsterdam, Netherlands and Jodi was speaking to an audience that filled three quarters of the large opera house and which included picture editors from prestigious publications all over the World. Bieber even resisted being stopped from talking to turn her attention to Hammerl. Having spoken for some time about her picture of Bibi Aisha, World Press Photo Manging Director, Michiel Munneke, attempted to wave her from stage but she refused to leave until she could make the appeal to all present to use whatever means possible to highlight the issue until Anton is released. Hear what Jodi said about Anton Hammerl.

Jodi Bieber has broken stereotypes about winners of the World Press Photo of the Year Award in more than one way. She is an African, she is a woman and she won with a portrait photo. All are unusual in the history of the award.

Above: Jodi Bieber delivering her acceptance speech for the 2011 World Press Photo of the Year Award. PHOTO: David A. Larsen

Above:Winners of the 2011 World Press Photo awards including South Africans Jodi Bieber (second from the right back row), Thomas Peschak (fourth from left middle row) and Mike Hutchings (third from left middle row partly obscured). PHOTO: David A. Larsen

Being at the World Press Photo Awards Days here in Amsterdam where South African photographer, Jodi Bieber, has won the World Press Photo of the Year Award, and where photographers from all over the world are gathering to celebrate that fact, we thought it was a brilliant moment to launch Shutha.

Above: Togo photographer Kokou Tadegnon interacting with children in Lusaka, Zambia, March 2010. PHOTO: David A. Larsen

Shutha, which is a Zulu slang word meaning “to take a photo”, is the fruit of months of really hard work by our team of writers from different parts of the World. We all met in Maputo at the end of January 2011 to conceptualize the resource and now it has finally all come together. It is divided into two major sections – one which helps to educate on what the markets for photography are and what they look for, and the other which focuses on the photographers themselves, their business and marketing skills and their ability to deliver to markets at the standards the market requires.

I believe Shutha is unique. It is not only free, but it is specifically aimed at professional photographers in the Majority World who often face challenges in terms of access to equipment and slow internet connectivity. Because of this we have designed the resource so that it can be available on DVD and not just online. I am also expecting that training events such as out Digital Campus will be enhanced by this resource. We would love to run training events with the Shutha team in different parts of the African continent. Having said that, we would be most thrilled if other training institutions and organisations took up the resource and built curricula around it. We are making it available on a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) license.

Above: Zimbabwean photographer Davina Jogi captures the press in action in Accra, Ghana, September 2009. PHOTO: David A. Larsen

That it is free does not mean it is cheap. The team that put it together has been really top class.

China-based DJ Clark is a contract multimedia reporter for China Daily, Director of Visual Journalism at the Asia Center for Journalism and Course leader on the MA International Multimedia Journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University (in collaboration with the University of Bolton, UK).

Peter Krogh is an American professional photographer who has served photographers all over the world by writing what is known today as the foremost resource on Digital Asset Management: The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers. Peter was a Microsoft Icons of Imaging programme participant, and is recognised as a world leader in digital imaging with his courses on digital workflow sought after in many parts of the world.

UK-based Graeme Cookson is a digital imaging expert who trains scanning companies, picture libraries and publishing companies, including sports photography staff at Reuters, staff at The British Library, The British Museum, and The National Library of Ireland, The Royal Horticultural Society, and The Open University. Graeme is a sought-after speaker at major international conventions in the imaging industry such as CEPIC.

My wife, Rosanne Larsen founded Africa Media Online’s picture library in 2000 and has overseen the expansion of the company’s reach into markets in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America through its network of distributing agencies. A third generation Mozambican and Director of International Sales, Rosanne plays a pivotal roll in Africa Media Online on the interface between photographers who are supplying images and markets who want images, and was instrumental in the design and development of Africa Media Online’s MEMAT 3.1 media management system.

Above: South African photographer Simone Schultz editing work during the Twenty Ten workshop in Accra, Ghana, September 2009. PHOTO: David A. Larsen

Dominique Le Roux is a publishing consultant and Director of Moonshine Media, a Cape Town-based company that manages media projects. A South African by birth, Dominique was involved in the conceptualization of the Twenty Ten project and has spent a number of years engaging with the needs of photographers and journalists in various parts of the Majority World. Dominique has almost 20 years experience in the media world as a writer, magazine editor, book publisher, web content manager, television presenter and photographic agent.

Of course it also includes me a fifth generation African, and a former journalist and photographer by trade. To give you some of my background, I founded Africa Media Online in 2000 with a mission to empower fellow Africans to tell Africa’s story from our own perspective and enabling that perspective compete in local and international markets. In pursuit of this passion we developed a digital trade route connecting African photographers and photographic collections to a world-wide audience. The trade route includes training programmes, digitisation services, photo website systems, as well as representing photographers to local and international markets. Shutha is really a development of a programme we developed in 2008 called the African Photo Entrepreneur Programme (APEP).

Shutha.org is one of the outputs of the Twenty Ten: African media on the road to twenty ten (and beyond) project, a partnership between World Press Photo, Freevoice (now rebranded as Free Press Unlimited), Africa Media Online and lokaalmondiaal and funded by the Dutch Postcode Lottery. The Twenty Ten project trained 128 journalists from 34 countries around Africa who produced media content from an African perspective in the run-up to and during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The content was used to produce a coffee table book, a travelling exhibition and was distributed to media around the world. A documentary film on the project was also produced by lokaalmondiaal. Africa Media Online has led the Shutha initiative, which has also benefitted from sponsorship of the Drupal-based web platform by the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) who originally developed the platform for its own site and then for their dpBestFlow.org initiative. For more information on the Twenty Ten project, see www.roadto2010.com.

Above: Shutha is part of the Twenty Ten project, a joint initiative of World Press Photo, FreeVoice, Africa Media Online and lokaalmondiaal which was funded by the Dutch Postcode Lottery. Above are pro photographers who participated in a training workshop run in Accra, Ghana in September 2009 – Back Row left to right: Greg Marinovich (trainer, South Africa), Julius Mwelu (Kenya), Carlos Litulo (Mozambique), Davina Jogi (South Africa), Nikki Rixon (South Africa), Chris De Bode (trainer, Holland); Second Row left to right: Alexia Webster (South Africa), Amos Gumulira (Malawi), Simone Scholtz (South Africa), Akintunde Akinyele (Nigeria), Samantha Reinders (South Africa); Front Row left to right: Michael Tsegaye (Ethiopia), Andrew Esiebo (Nigeria), Adolphus Opara (Nigeria). PHOTO: David A. Larsen

Jodi Bieber speaking about taking the World Press Photo of the Year award winning picture of Bibi Aisha. PHOTO: David A. Larsen/Africa Media Online

Guests at the official opening of the World Press Photo exhibition 2011 view some of the images in Die Oude Kerk in Amsterdam. During the course of the next year the exhibition will travel to over 100 venues and be seen by over 2.5 million people. PHOTO: David A. Larsen/Africa Media Online

It was a brilliant to see Zimbabwean photographer, Tsvangirayi Mukwadzhi and his wife Gladys at the Award Days. He is now the Picture Editor at the recently resurrected Zimbabwean newspaper, the Daily News and is on his way to Oslo, Norway to present a photography course. Tsvangirayi is a graduate of our African Photo Entrepreneur Programme. PHOTO: David A. Larsen/Africa Media Online

Michiel Munneke the director of World Press Photo opened the proceedings making reference to the importance of photojournalism in the world today and paying tribute to those photographers over the past year who have paid with their lives to bring us the stories we so often take for granted, as well as to those who are in captivity for their work.

Above: Mike Hutchings giving his presentation at the World Press Photo Award Days. PHOTO: David A. Larsen/Africa Media Online