Applications are open for the Advanced Visual Storytelling educational programme by the NOOR Foundation, with a focus on the stories of the cocoa communities in Ivory Coast.
At NOOR, we strongly believe that visual storytelling is a powerful medium that can bring awareness to underrepresented stories and human experiences. We believe that everyone, regardless of background, should have the opportunity to tell the stories that matter to them. Are you a visual storyteller eager to learn about ethical representation and looking for a way to use your skills to tell stories of people in a meaningful way?
In partnership with the Chocolonely Foundation, we are organising an extensive educational programme in West Africa to bring together young talent and communities, create a collective space, develop creative collaborative processes, and shape up new narratives.
This initiative will bring together the talent of regional visual storytellers, the knowledge of community facilitators, the NOOR mentoring expertise and the underrepresented voices of the workers of the cocoa communities in Ivory Coast. By focusing on these stories and creating a wide-reaching platform for local talent, we aim to contribute to a shift in the power balance towards equality within the cocoa supply chain.
This educational programme offers a tuition-free 8 month training tract consisting of an in-person workshop in Ivory Coast and continued with an online mentoring phase. The programme is mentored by a group of photographers and industry experts from the NOOR team and the West African region. Through this programme, we aim to elevate your visual storytelling skills and facilitate your journalistic, investigative and visual expertise over the photographic medium. In addition, you will have the chance to network with other like-minded visual storytellers and become part of NOOR’s international professional network.
About the Workshop
The workshop is divided in three phases:
Phase 1: Online kick-off session(s), remote
During the month of March 2023, the selected participants and the mentoring team will gather remotely in a (series of) kick-off session(s) aimed at setting up expectations, sharing bodies of work and establishing a personal connection ahead of the in-person workshop in Ivory Coast.Phase 2: 7 day workshop in Hermankono-Diès, Ivory Coast
The physical workshop will take place in and around the city of Divo from March 31 st to April 7th, 2023 and the stories will be shot in Socoopacdi agricultural cooperative.
During the physical workshop, you will focus on the development of a visual narrative story in tight cooperation with the cocoa communities. You will learn theoretical and technical skills, gain knowledge on how to structure work and how to implement it on the ground with limited time. You will be guided and supported through the whole process by the mentors who will facilitate your access, the approach to the subjects, guide you in finding the narrative of your stories and the visual impact that your images can achieve.
Phase 3: 5 month online mentoring programme, remote
After the completion of the 7-day workshop, you will participate in a five month mentoring program online to further develop your work, expand your knowledge and tighten relationships in what we hope might form a new community. Through regular online meetings, you will finalise and improve the edit and curatorial process of your stories. You will also gain access to online lectures from leading experts of photography with a varied mix of backgrounds on thematics and subjects such as curating, editing, visual anthropology, archiving or grant writing.
More details
The application and the workshop are free of charge. Travel expenses, accommodation and a daily stipend for food are also included.
The participant photographers are expected to bring their own gear.
All participants are expected to arrive/land in Abidjan two days before the workshop starts (no later than March 30th) and book their departure flight or trip at least one day after the workshop ends (not earlier than April 8th).
Local transport from/to Abidjan and accommodation ahead and during the workshop will be arranged for the group.
The workshop will be taught in French.
Application process
Application deadline is February 22, 2023 - 11:59 pm CET.
The participants selected will be announced on February 28, 2023
Open to French speaking photographers of all ages, nationals of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
Dates:
The 7 day workshop will take place in Hermankono-Diès (Divo, Ivory Coast) between March 31st and April 7th, 2023.
The online mentorship program will consist of bi-weekly meetings from April 30 to September 30, 2023.
The jury is formed by NOOR author Bénédicte Kurzen, NOOR Creative Director Stefano Carini and a West African photography expert.
The participants will be selected based on the quality of their work, factoring in critical aspects such as gender parity, inclusivity and equality, as well as the relevance to the subject of previous bodies of work.
The options to apply are:
Through PICTER
Sending a PDF* to maria@noorimages.com
Sending a PDF* via WhatsApp to +31 649 772 197.
*The PDF must include, at least:
Name and last name
Date of birth
Nationality
Address of residence
Email
Mobile number
Website and Instagram account (if applicable)
CV
Motivation letter: Why do you want to take part in such a program?
A portfolio of at least 20 images. We advise applicants to apply with coherent bodies of work, a series of images or visual stories as opposed to collections of single images.
For any questions, please email NOOR Projects Director Maria Goirigolzarri at maria@noorimages.com
© Bénédicte Kurzen / NOOR
Mentoring Team
Confirmed
Ishola Akpo (Benin)
Ishola Akpo (b. 1983) is a photographer and multimedia artist in Benin. The artist experiments with the possibilities of digital mediums, while mixing modernities and traditions in his work, playing on different levels of reading to make plural metaphors. The border between reality and fiction, fixed identities and multiple identities, remains at the heart of his approach. In 2013, he won the Visa pour la Creation (French Institute, Paris), where he presented the series Pas de flash sil vous plait! – A reflection on the interaction of light on photographed subjects, presented in the form of a performance and exhibition at the Institut Francais de Cotonou.
In 2014, he published the series L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux (Africa Is NoIsland, MACAAL, Fair 1.54 in Morocco, 2018), based on a family experience, which illustrates his grandmother's dowry, while insisting on its memory load. This reflection will lead him to explore contemporary marriage. In 2015, with the series Les maris de notre poque, Ishola Akpo, won the Photoquai, entering the collection of the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris.
Since then he has multiples artistic residencies: Montresso Foundation (Morocco) with the Dabi series and more recently the Zinsou Foundation (Benin) with 'AGBARA Women' presented at the Ouidah Museum as an ode to the power of women, embodied with portraits of known and forgotten queens from African history. His work has been presented in several major international events including: The Museum of the History of Immigration, (Palais de la Porte Dore, Africa 2020 - Paris), Weltkulturen Museum Frankfurt (Germany), Fotonoviembre, Tenerife (Spain), Nuit Blanche de Port-au-Prince (Haiti), Lagosphotos Festival (Nigeria), Festival Afreaka (Brazil).
Bénédicte Kurzen (France)
Kurzen’s photographic career began when she moved to Israel in 2003, covering hard news as a freelancer in the Gaza Strip, Iraq and Lebanon. Bénédicte holds a master’s degree in Contemporary History from the Sorbonne, Paris. For the past twenty years, Bénédicte has been covering conflicts and socio-economical changes in Africa. In South Africa, where she was based, she explored some of the deepest social challenges of the post-apartheid society producing “Next of Kin”, “The Boers Last Stand” and “Amaqabane”, on the life of former anti-apartheid combatants. The latest was produced for the prestigious World Press Joop Swart Masterclass 2008. In 2011, she received a grant from the Pulitzer Center, which allowed her to produce a body of work on Nigeria, “A Nation Lost to Gods”. Her work has been screened and exhibited at Visa pour l’Image and was nominated for the Visa d’Or in 2012. After becoming a NOOR full member in 2012, she decided to move to Lagos, from where she could pursue her coverage of Africa, with a focus on Nigeria. She won a World Press Photo for her collaborative project with NOOR Photographer Sanne De Wilde for "Land of Ibeji" in 2019.
Hervé Mian (Ivory Coast)
Hervé Mian started his professional career as a civil aviation officer and aviation manager in the United Nations. After several personal experiences and his unwavering faith in the development of any living or non-living organisation through personal training, his career path moved into the world of individual and organisation coaching as well as business consultancy. He now collaborates with diverse organisations in Africa, including large scale corporations, SMEs and schools, assisting them in the creation and the implementation of business development and leadership programs. Hervé is also the country manager of an NGO called Anansi Mentoring Academy, an organisation that aims at promoting a disruptive and humanistic African leadership based on pan-African mentoring. For the past three years Hervé has also been working with Tony’s Chocolonely, a Dutch chocolate manufacturer, leading the implementation of the Tony’s Ambassadors Program. With the mission to remove child labour and slavery from the cocoa production chain, the purpose of this impact program is to train role models in the cocoa communities with storytelling methodologies in a joint effort to sensitize the cocoa farmers to follow and promote the movement of protection of children rights.
Partners
This educational program is organised in partnership and made possible thanks to the support of the Chocolonely Foundation.
Header image: © Bénédicte Kurzen / NOOR