Dec
I was short listed for the Lens Culture Visual Story Telling Awards, being selected by the editors but missing out on winning overall. My submission was among the top-rated entries in the Visual Storytelling Awards 2015 competition which received entries from over 100 different countries.
I entered ten pictures from the work that I photographed on sesame seed farming for the organisation, Farm Africa, in Tanzania. Farm Africa works with small holder farmers to reduce poverty and improve food security by increasing household incomes.
The photograph shows how Farm Africa has worked with local small holders providing them with warehouse space.
Before Farm Africa’s involvement in sesame seed farming, a large percentage of the crop would be lost after harvesting, because the farmers had nowhere to store or process it. Sesame seeds are easily damaged and are prone to rotting and pests. They need to be sieved and stored in a dry environment. Farm Africa has built two modern warehouses with enough room for farmers to process and store their crops. A kilo of the higher-quality sesame sells for almost 45% more than the local variety did, helping provide more for their families.
Farm Africa also encourages farmers to form co-operatives so they can sell their produce collectively, and the co-operative warehouse allows the farmers to store sesame until it is at its most valuable.
For more information go to www.farmafrica.org
Dec
I am featured in this months “Nikon Pro” magazine as photographing African killer bees in Tanzania for the charity, Farm Africa.
I travelled to Tanzania earlier this year to photograph for Farm Africa who work with small holder farmers to reduce poverty and improve food security by increasing household incomes and manage their natural resources sustainably.
Farm Africa provides technical expertise to improve production, enterprise development and market linkages, whilst creating and maintaining a sustainable agriculture natural resource management programme.
Beekeeping is an important element of Farm Africa’s project and an activity that has been very successful. Beekeeping is a traditional activity but introducing modern hives means that production has doubled in just one year and the farmers get a better price at market because the honey is of a higher quality. Modern hives also mean that women are able to get involved in honey businesses. Farm Africa now supports 39 beekeeping business groups across 14 villages in Babati and 19 villages in Mbulu with a total of 535 members, 262 of whom are women.
As well as photographing the success of the project I also joined “The Big Bee Hive Challenge”, which was 3 days, nine female food and drink industry leaders and 90 beehives to build. Working alongside the Erri community in Tanzania the group built an apiary of Langstroth beehives to kick-start profitable and sustainable honey farming businesses for the Erri beekeeping group. If that wasn't challenging enough the group also had to reach a £50,000 fundraising target.
For more information on Farm Africa's work go to
www.farmafrica.org
Dec
My photograph of a young boy waiting for school to begin, taken last year in Rwanda is being displayed in December as part of “The Beauty of Humanity” collection in association with SeeMe at Art Basel Miami.
Miami has exploded into a well-known destination that attracts some of the top artists in the world. From sophisticated Art Basel for the cultural connoisseur, to graffiti-clad Wynwood for the emerging muralists, Miami has something for everyone.
It’s also the time of year when 14 of Miami’s own galleries present their most compelling work. "It's a spotlight on the newest of the new. These artists are producing the best works of their career to show at the world's fair of fine art," says Robert Fontaine, director of the Robert Fontaine Gallery in Wynwood.
Designers and magazine editors attend Miami Art Week, to find current and original talent with Norah Horowitz, Art Bazel’s director of the America’s, saying “Art Basel in Miami Beach is known as the place to see the next new thing.”
My work has been selected from photographers representing 191 different countries, and will be shown at the Scope Art fair gallery.
The photograph is of a young boy waiting for school to begin. I spent four weeks in Rwanda last year photographing with the organisation DelAgua to produce a book, “Tubeho Neza - Transforming Lives Through Enterprise”, to publicize their work.
DelAgua is working in Rwanda on a 20-year programme to distribute water filters and fuel-efficient cooking stoves across the country. It has given away more than 2 million so far, with the poorest 30 per cent of the population getting them free and the remainder being able to buy them at a subsidised rate. The cookers and filters will also be distributed to local traders, who will be able to buy with microfinance loans to sell on at a profit.
DelAgua wants to develop a retail distribution network so that it can look to other useful products, such as solar lighting and soap. It is also able to claim carbon credits through monitoring the use of their products, which it sells to fund the project.
Rwanda is still recovering from the Ethnic strife and massacres of the mid-1990's, with two thirds of the population living below the poverty line.
