“Everyday Africa” is an Instagram Feed. Professional photographers will share shots that capture everyday life in African countries. An Interview with the initiators.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Ballet is everywhere
“Dancing in the Streets” announced Brian Otieno the photo, this is part of his “KiberaStories”. His images stories document a different, poetic and beautiful side of everyday life in Kibera, the largest Slum in the southwest of Nairobi. Particularly hard life to be there for the girls, the fear of Attacks to have. Otienos photo shows the passionate ballet dancer, Elsie, 16 years.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Motorcycle brides
The free photo journalist Ley Uwera said the image “Motorcycle Marriage”, motorcycle-wedding, on Instagram. She discovered the two-wheeled wedding procession in Beni in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: a best man and a bride sitting on a motorcycle. Ley Uweras Work has been published in international magazines.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
In the eighth field,
Mustafa Saeed is living and working in Hargeisa, Somalia. His photo shows Mahad (li.) and Mohamed (right), the Somaliland chess society sit opposite each other in the final of the chess championship. Mahad will win the game.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
In and on the water
Sam Vox documented everyday life in Tanzania. He wanted to tell “stories about people, places and their different cultures and traditions,” he says. Vox has worked with organisations such as Water Aid or Everyday Education. “We are made of salt water, so pure and so calm like the morning sea,” he writes about his numerous bizarre shots.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Movie stars waiting in the wings
The cinema stars of tomorrow has opened up Edward Echwalu in a Slum in the Ugandan Kampala. He is proud to be a part of Everyday Africa: “never before has there been a time, in the most of the shared photos are not wars, poverty, diseases, but the everyday life on the continent documenting. And especially: These stories are told by Africans,” he writes on Instagram.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Hairy Comparisons
The Nigerian photographer Yagazie Emez on Instagram a Community of more than 140,000 followers. Your photos often tell of African women, their hairstyles. Emezi travels for their work, through Tanzania, Zambia, Ghana, Gabon, Liberia or Uganda.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Before the process
Tom Saater is a documentary photographer and Short film maker from Nigeria. His Work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale. This photo shows a budding lawyer on the way to your test in Abuja, Nigeria. Like all photographers of Everyday Africa Saater want to show the normal life in Africa in the Western media hardly.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Party mood
Instead of how many people in front of banks, or gas stations in Zimbabwe queue to stand in, enjoy these young people their lives. The group called the “Material Culture” is made up of young residents of various Townships of Bulawayo, the second largest city in the country. There lives and works of the photographer Zinyange Auntony.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Ecological Crisis
Maheder Haileselassie photographed this man, the hyacinths by water a way. These plants multiply very quickly and ensure that the biodiversity is destroyed in a lake such as Lake Tana in Ethiopia. The documentation of environmental changes in their native Ethiopia, are an urgent concern of the photographer from Adis Ababa.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Street as a meeting place
The Ghanaian Nana Kofi Acquah travels all over the continent. “Short walks take a long time, because you greeted everyone you meet,” he explains to his photo “Shaking Hands”, recorded in Tanghin-Dassouri, Burkina Faso. “Don’t ‘Hi’ or ‘Good Morning’, but ‘How’s your Partner, your children, your business, your health?’ And you listen to every answer.”
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Ballet is everywhere
“Dancing in the Streets” announced Brian Otieno the photo, this is part of his “KiberaStories”. His images stories document a different, poetic and beautiful side of everyday life in Kibera, the largest Slum in the southwest of Nairobi. Particularly hard life to be there for the girls, the fear of Attacks to have. Otienos photo shows the passionate ballet dancer, Elsie, 16 years.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Motorcycle brides
The free photo journalist Ley Uwera said the image “Motorcycle Marriage”, motorcycle-wedding, on Instagram. She discovered the two-wheeled wedding procession in Beni in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: a best man and a bride sitting on a motorcycle. Ley Uweras Work has been published in international magazines.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
In the eighth field,
Mustafa Saeed is living and working in Hargeisa, Somalia. His photo shows Mahad (li.) and Mohamed (right), the Somaliland chess society sit opposite each other in the final of the chess championship. Mahad will win the game.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
In and on the water
Sam Vox documented everyday life in Tanzania. He wanted to tell “stories about people, places and their different cultures and traditions,” he says. Vox has worked with organisations such as Water Aid or Everyday Education. “We are made of salt water, so pure and so calm like the morning sea,” he writes about his numerous bizarre shots.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Movie stars waiting in the wings
The cinema stars of tomorrow has opened up Edward Echwalu in a Slum in the Ugandan Kampala. He is proud to be a part of Everyday Africa: “never before has there been a time, in the most of the shared photos are not wars, poverty, diseases, but the everyday life on the continent documenting. And especially: These stories are told by Africans,” he writes on Instagram.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Hairy Comparisons
The Nigerian photographer Yagazie Emez on Instagram a Community of more than 140,000 followers. Your photos often tell of African women, their hairstyles. Emezi travels for their work, through Tanzania, Zambia, Ghana, Gabon, Liberia or Uganda.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Before the process
Tom Saater is a documentary photographer and Short film maker from Nigeria. His Work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale. This photo shows a budding lawyer on the way to your test in Abuja, Nigeria. Like all photographers of Everyday Africa Saater want to show the normal life in Africa in the Western media hardly.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Party mood
Instead of how many people in front of banks, or gas stations in Zimbabwe queue to stand in, enjoy these young people their lives. The group called the “Material Culture” is made up of young residents of various Townships of Bulawayo, the second largest city in the country. There lives and works of the photographer Zinyange Auntony.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Ecological Crisis
Maheder Haileselassie photographed this man, the hyacinths by water a way. These plants multiply very quickly and ensure that the biodiversity is destroyed in a lake such as Lake Tana in Ethiopia. The documentation of environmental changes in their native Ethiopia, are an urgent concern of the photographer from Adis Ababa.
-
Global Media Forum exhibition, “Everyday Africa”
Street as a meeting place
The Ghanaian Nana Kofi Acquah travels all over the continent. “Short walks take a long time, because you greeted everyone you meet,” he explains to his photo “Shaking Hands”, recorded in Tanghin-Dassouri, Burkina Faso. “Don’t ‘Hi’ or ‘Good Morning’, but ‘How’s your Partner, your children, your business, your health?’ And you listen to every answer.”
Deutsche Welle: “Everyday Africa” operates according to the Slogan “re-picturing a continent”. Your goal is to illustrate a new continent to imagine new?
Austin Merrill: “Everyday Africa” is trying to show that life for most people, runs on the African continent is quite normal, and not so much about the life in the United States, Latin America or Europe is different. It is not so, that the whole of Africa is full of corruption, disease and poverty, as you can see it constantly in the media. With these prejudices we want to break.
Have you reckoned with the success of “Everyday Africa”?
Austin Merrill: We never thought that it would be this big. Peter DiCampo and I have started the project in 2012. We had both lived in West Africa, I was four years in the ivory coast, in Ghana, so we knew this part of West Africa quite well. We worked on a report about a crisis situation. But we quickly realized that it would be a story that you constantly see in the news about this Region. And maybe it was much more important that we tell that the people there at the same time a normal life. So it began, and it hit a nerve. It started in Africa, and today it is a global phenomenon.
Ginika is on the way to your exam as an aspiring judge in Abuja, Nigeria
Maheder Haileselassie, how did you come to “Everyday Africa”?
Maheder Haileselassie: I heard about friends of the posted self-pics on “Everyday Africa”. I looked at me from time to time your Work. 2017 I became a member.
Why have you decided at that time for Instagram as a platform?
Austin Merrill: We started 2012 with Tumblr. After a few months we saw how much attention Instagram got, and we changed the platform. We also try to find other means of distribution, independent of Instagram. For example, there are wandering exhibitions, two years ago, an “Everyday Africa”-book was released. Whether we encounter in the media or in school classes with teenagers through photography in different Parts of the world are talking about – there are many different ways to tell this story. Instagram is the largest, but not the only one.
There is an editorial pre-selection, or charge the photographer your images?
Maheder Haileselassie: That’s the Great thing about “Everyday Africa”: All of the photographers have the password to the Instagram profile. So, we can post the pictures whenever we want.
So the project is heavily based on trust. How does one ever “Everyday Africa”photographer? You have for sure a lot of applicants…
Austin Merrill: It has become so popular that we had to find the selection criteria. In the next few days we will be taking in 16 new photographers that we have selected who applied to our call. We are always looking for new photographers. Initially, I posted many of my own pictures, now I’m the barely. I take care of the platform, while Maheder and the other to upload your photos.
Two Models backstage at the Africa Fashion Week in Lagos, Nigeria
We do not write to the photographer what you are allowed to post and what not. We are talking about at the beginning with you, when you join. We want to make sure all of the contributing photographers to our goals. And we trust that the images that are uploaded, tell the everyday stories. Of course, we harvest and criticism. For example, it can be a picture, you might think: “This is yet again, a clichéd image of Africa.” But then, next to a picture of someone at work or two people at dinner. It is the combination of these things, which together provide a snapshot of everyday life.
Maheder Haileselassie, track your own images with a similar goal?
Maheder Haileselassie: Yeah, I think so. But perhaps not so aware of. I use Instagram as a kind of sketch book. ch wouldn’t think of on Instagram, when I make photos, but as real as my everyday life. On my way to work, for example. If I then have my Feed look, I see my life in front of me where I was and what I have experienced. It fits so well with what “tried Everyday Africa”. We pursue a common goal.
The photo of Maheder Haileselassie documented that water hyacinth on lake Tana in Ethiopia to the plague
What are your next goals?
Austin Merrill: (laughs) that’s A good question. We are constantly trying new find out. We now have a non-profit organization with the name “Everyday Projects”. There are worldwide dozens of “Everyday”projects. Some are geographical, some based topics, for example, “Everyday climate change” or “Everyday extinction”. We bring together these different projects and build a community of photographers. We can all learn a lot from each other, I think.
Were you involved in the development of the other “Everyday”platforms?
Austin Merrill: No. But we are pleased that others pick up on our idea. We wanted to do more of the photographer’s courage. That is why we have developed the Website everydayprojects.org on, among other things, how you can make your own “Everyday”-page. Everyone should have this opportunity, no matter where he lives. We hope that we will find a way, how we will work together to bring these everyday stories around the world, more in focus.