Zimbabwe

Photographic workshop in Harare

By Martin Chemhere, Harare mchemhere@yahoo.com

_{Zimbabwean women, like their African counterparts, are still largely left out of challenging careers such as photography due to certain myths that have been established by male sexists who tend to enjoy dominance over the fairer sex.}

_{Shamiso Mupure, one of the few leading Zimbabwean woman photographers made this revelation at a recent workshop in Harare.}

_{Held on Tuesday 6 March at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, the workshop was attended by young photographers from the Harare Polytechnic and the National Gallery Visual Arts Studios, making it an important event in terms of skills development of young Zimbabwean photographers. There was a general awareness element as the young and emerging talents learnt of the photographers who have made their names nationally, regionally and internationally.}

_{Interesting to see where several young female photographers, a new precedent in Zimbabwean photography, many of whom showed a lot of keenness to make a difference at home and abroad in future.}

_{Mupure, a widely experienced developmental and gender photographer said that, the weaker position taken by Zimbabwean women photographers (and others in Africa) was being worsened by the fact that many were venturing into the photographic field with little knowledge of the art form.}

_{Those who had the guts to take up the camera usually found the certain systems “made-for-men” in the newsrooms. “We are still fighting various challenges as women photographers. The few of us that have been brave enough to portray the world alongside our male friends in news rooms have not lasted the distance as we have found it difficult to work due to unwarranted and unreasonable male dominance”, she told the workshop participants.}

_{Mupure who has worked in the photographic journalism field for more than 10 years now gave a snap overview of photography and its beginnings Europe, Africa and Zimbabwe.}

_{She said that despite the fact that many people did not understand the subject of photography hence their lack of appreciation of the work of a photographer, termed “the art of painting light” by photographic scholars, photography has been on the rise in Zimbabwe, Southern Africa and in North Africa.}

_{The gathering heard that as photographers, exceptional work could be exhibited and see at major African photographic showcases like the prestigious Encounters held in Bamako, Mali and the Gwanza Month of Photography established in Harare, Zimbabwe.}

_{Using her experience, she implored the new photographers to strive for photographic excellence through telling “good pictures from bad ones”, describing a good picture as generally ”one that provokes the mind”.}

_{From the ancient times when Leonardo da Vinci made the first steps in establishing the photographic field in the 1700s, the creative form has out grown that humble beginning through the 1820s when the first images hit the eyes of the public in Europe to the 1940s when the African continent caught up with it through the hard work and enthusiasm of legends like Mali’s Seidou Keita, who specialized in portraits.}

_{Mupure said that although photography began in the 1940s in Africa many countries on the continent are still lagging behind in professionally developing the field, due to largely its expensive nature.}

_{She said that while Seidou Keita was instrumental in laying the foundation for African photography, later contributors to its growth have included South Africans like Peter Magubane who specialized in taking pictures of Nelson Mandela and Santu Mafokeng who began his career as a street photographer in Soweto.}

_{A disturbing feature of the workshop was when she told the participants that photographic history in Zimbabwe was not well documented making it difficult to talk and properly trace about its origins. Photography arrived in Zimbabwe with European explorers in the late 1800s. On arrival they set up studios equipped with Kodak cameras and engaged young black people for on-the-job training but whose success were never recorded in literature and images.}

_{“It is sad that there are romantic stories written about stone sculpture, music and theatre, but there was nothing on photographic activities and development”, she said.}

_{Despite this poor archival record, there have been pioneers in Zimbabwean photography such as the late John Mauluka, a Malawian who made his name in Zimbabwe and his country of birth. Another leading photographic light was Alexander Joe who moved to South Africa soon after independence, the time which other notable and internationally rising photographers namely Calvin Dondo emerged. From there, several young and creative photographers emerged and have since made a significant contribution to develop what is now being called contemporary photography in Zimbabwe. Here, leading names come to mind such as Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi and Desmond Kwande.}

_{Shamiso Mupure is one of the few Zimbabwean women photographers making good progress in and outside the country. Other names include Alice Tavaya, Eugenia Mauluka who is now working outside the country.}

_{On women photographers, Mupure said that until the last decade women photographers have been largely ignored although that trend was gradually changing for the better. She said that many would-be female photographers have been afraid of challenges that come with carrying the camera, the lenses, as well as assignments in what we are perceived as “dangerous” situations.}

_{Certain myths in the newsrooms such as those women photojournalists cannot be on call as they are afraid to clash with their spouses, and during pregnancy are now being challenged.}

_{Shamiso Mupure trained in photography with the Southern Africa Media Services Organization (SAMSO) in the mid 1990s before becoming a full time photographer in the same organization and worked extensively in Zimbabwe, Southern African region and beyond.}

_{In 2005 she won an award in Gender Links organized competition portraying gender images and presented at the first ever Gender Summit held in South Africa.}

_{She also trained with World Press Photo Foundation in 2001, World Press Photo in Kenya in 1999, Children’s Jury in Netherlands (1998) and the Digital Training, held in Norway in 2002.}

_{Her photographs have been exhibited in Mali (Encounters), Harare (Gwanza), Kenya and Norway. Most of her work has been published in local, regional and international gender and development publications.}