Photojournalism Hub x Riverside Studios 03rd June

Mariusz Śmiejek is an independent photographer, visual storyteller, and educator with over 20 years of experience specializing in capturing the raw narratives of human and social conditions. Renowned for documenting a wide range of subjects including post-conflict communities, refugee crises, child slavery, human trafficking, and systemic abuse. Recipient of prestigious awards in international photography competitions, his work has been exhibited globally and featured in renowned publications globally including The New York Times, National Geographic, and the British Journal of Photography, among many others. www.mariuszsmiejek.com

Not Surrendering tells a visual story specifically about the struggle of loyalists to shape a distinct identity in post-conflict Northern Ireland. The documentary narrative introduces us to the daily lives of the local British working-class as well as members of its illegal paramilitary groups. Recognised as terrorist organizations until recently, these associations still carry weight, sow fear, and control Northern Ireland’s Ulster.
By focusing on the spaces which the book’s subjects inhabit, aspects of their daily lives, and the particularities of their neighbourhoods separated by ominous ‘peace walls,’ the photography brings to the fore the psychological state of siege which permeates working-class districts in Northern Ireland. The story also spotlights the atmosphere of despair which accompanies each successive generation – trapped socially and mentally in unprocessed traumas from which it cannot escape.
The aim of the Not Surrendering is to increase awareness and knowledge about processes of reconciliation in post-conflict societies that are divided territorially, politically, nationally, and religiously.
The story this volume highlights the difficulties NGO and other grassroots projects face while working with difficult youth from families deeply involved in the conflict.
The photographic images illustrate the tensions arising during celebrations of national identity, during which especially members of paramilitary groups openly fan the flames of hatred towards their neighbours. This directly affects the indoctrination of the youngest who actively participate in numerous events of this type, leading often to recruitment of young people into paramilitary associations or organised criminal groups.
This has been a personal, individual project from the very beginning to the end (2010-2020); partly supported at the very end stage by Artists Emergency Programme grant from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and The National Lottery.

Roland Ramanan is a London based documentary photographer, born in 1966 with a background in music and education. He developed a passion for photography around 2010, initially through street photography. In 2012 he started a long term documentary project on a vulnerable group of people who gravitate towards a corner of east London called Gillett Square which is to be published by Dewi Lewis as the book “Dominoes”. This work has been featured in Vice magazine among others and has won various awards including being shortlisted for the Royal Photographic Society documentary awards 2023. In 2022 he was one of the finalists in the Portrait of Britain awards. Roland’s current project focuses on the London roller skate scene and its relationship to black culture. https://rolandramanan.com/

Dominoes is a unique and vibrant mosaic of the lives that float in and around a particular corner of Hackney in London’s East End. The book is populated by intimate pictures of people who have experienced addiction and pain as well as the deep joys of the community of which they are a part. Gillett Square was derelict and underdeveloped for years until, in the 1990s it became an experiment in urban regeneration. Like the Dominoes they play in the square, those lives are often precarious. For ten years from 2012 I was privileged to be allowed into the lives and homes of some of those I have met, to photograph their fights and struggles; their families and their lovers. Some of these people are now my friends and some are no longer with us. The participants I am closest to form the heart of the book and I’m sure that bond will continue. The work gives us honest glimpses into lives that we may often turn away from but always with a sense of hope. Dominoes touches on universal themes of love, death, hope and the evolution of urban communities.

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Consider becoming a member of the Photojournalism Hub and receive the benefits of free access to events, resources, premier editorial content, portfolio reviews, and discounts on entry to our photography exhibitions, training and in our shop, whilst you will be supporting our work advocating, advancing social justice and human rights, amplifying community voices and enhance access to media to those facing social, economic and structural challenges. If there were ever a time to join us, it is now. Support the Photojournalism Hub from as little as £1 every month. If you can, please consider supporting us with a regular amount each month. Thank you. JOIN US HERE

Photojournalism Nights 30th edition

©Samira Oulaillah
©Natisha Mallick

25th January 2023, 18:30 – 21:30 
The Invention Rooms
Imperial College Door C
68 Wood Lane
London W12 7T

More info, and to book HERE

Photojournalism Hub presents Natisha Mallick and Samira Oulaillah to the 30th edition of the Photojournalism Nights event at The Invention Rooms, Imperial College London.

Both award winning photographers work on under-reported topics that need incredible courage and access to be able to tell, including Natisha’ stories on Muslim men being falsely implicated in terror cases and the challenges of child birth in India, and Samira’s project ‘Breaking the Silence’, exploring the testimonies of former Israeli soldiers who quit the army to join an organization called “Breaking the Silence” – founded in 1995 by former soldiers- who decided to testify against their own actions in the occupied territories.

Natisha Mallick is a computer engineer by education and a documentary photographer who focused her work on under-reported stories in India. She hopes that her images contribute to the public enhancement of unbalanced situations. Her work has been published in Spiegel Online, The Wire, The Quint, Fountain Ink Magazine, The Irish Times, Scroll, Catch News, Private Photo Review and L’ oeil de la photographie. Shortlisted twice for the Marilyn Stafford Foto Reportage Award in 2018 & 2017 for her work on Muslim Men falsely implicated in terror cases. Natisha’s work on Child Births in Rural India was awarded the Child Survival Media Award by National Foundation for India and Save the children and was also shortlisted for the Photocrati Fund. She was the recipient of the Neel Dongre Grant by India Photo Archive Foundation and the Oslo University College Grant. Interested in Data Stories, Natisha is transitioning into the tech/data space and presently working towards her Masters in Big Data Science from Queen Mary University of London. http://natishamallick.com/

Samira Oulaillah, a French filmmaker and documentary photographer, has extensively worked in the last ten years on global issues related to war, refugees, gender issues, child poverty and racial discrimination, producing numerous documentaries for international cable television and presenting documentary photography for various media outlets and NGOs. She has widely travelled across the world to shoot hard-hitting documentaries and immersive photographic reportages that give a voice to the voiceless and a face to the forgotten. Samira holds an MA in Documentary Photography & Photojournalism (UAL London College of Communication) and an MA in Social History (Winchester University). She is currently preparing a PhD with the Sorbonne University in Paris and working on the impact of white colonial photography in West Africa on the representation of native people and the revival of African identity and collective memory through the work of contemporary Malian photographer Malick Sidibé and Senegalese photographer Oumar Ly. https://samira.photoshelter.com/

BECOME A PJH MEMBER
Consider becoming a member of the Photojournalism Hub and receive the benefits of free access to events, Photojournalism Hub resources, premier editorial content, portfolio reviews, photography exhibitions, discounts on our courses and training, whilst you will be supporting our work advocating, advancing social justice and human rights. If there were ever a time to join us, it is now. Support the Photojournalism Hub from as little as £1 every month. If you can, please consider supporting us with a regular amount each month. Thank you. JOIN US HERE

REPORTING OF WAR, AWAY FROM THE FRONTLINES

The Invention Rooms, Imperial College
Door C, 68 Wood Lane
London
W12 7TA

To join HERE

Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, escalating the Russo-Ukrainian War which had begun in 2014. During the past eleven weeks, photographers and journalists have reported from field, many of the images have captured the deadly events that have taken place.

We have invited a group of photographers, whose work have contributed to the ongoing documentation, with photographs that unearth stories away from the frontlines, such as the displaced within the country and events at the borders. Carolina Rapezzi , one of the guest photographers, explains: according to the latest IOM report (17 April 2022) there are 7,707,000 Internally displaced people in Ukraine. 2,850,000 of this are in West Ukraine. Chernivtsi, the last Ukrainian city before the Romanian border, has become a refuge for roughly over 100,000 displaced Ukrainians, 33,341 are children and 82,340 are now officially registered with IDP status. These are stories I found between Chernivtsi and Siret, the first Romanian city after the Ukrainian border, that has instead become a crossroads, for the ones leaving the country.

We are incredibly honoured to present to you all our guests photographers Carolina Rapezzi, Hether Ng and Natalia Campos who have been covering the war in Ukraine and will be sharing their powerful photography, insights and stories from within the war ravaged country.

Carolina Rapezzi is an Italian freelance photographer based in London who works on social, humanitarian and environmental issues. She started working on migration issues in 2015, documenting the welcoming systems for minors arriving from Libya on the Sicilian coasts (“Minors on the Move” September 2015) and, after a few months, began a project that lasted eight months covering the eviction of the refugee camp of Calais, France (“The Eviction” March-October 2016). Moved to London in 2013, she photographs various protest movements, including those on the Brexit Referendum and the more recent Black Lives Matter. In 2017 she begins a long-term project on identity and gender (“It was meant to be” April 2017 – 2020).In since 2018 and 2019 she started working on environmental issues with a focus on electronic waste and disposal systems (“Burning Dreams” October 2018 – November 2019). In May 2020 she covered the Covid19 pandemic in London, documenting from a homeless hostel and since 2019 she has been working on a project on knife crime and its social roots in London.

Yuen Ching (Hesther) Ng, a London-based Hong Kong photographer who was born in 1992. Currently, she is studying to be a photojournalist from the University of the Arts London (UAL). Her press works are mainly focusing on breaking news and protests. They can be found in various national and international media outlets such as The Guardian, Forbes, BBC, The Times, Metro, and Yahoo! News, CNN, the Wall Street Journal etc. Being born and raised in different countries, she develops a keen interest in documenting the displacement of people and cultures around the world through her lenses. Apart from photography, she is a qualified clinical pharmacist practising in London and an independent journalist from HK Feature.

Natalia Campos is a self-taught freelance photographer originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil but based for the past six years in Dublin, Ireland. In her three years as a photographer she has documented protests, news events, and everyday life in countries such as Northern Ireland, Portugal, Turkey, and Georgia. She has recently reported on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine as a result of the Russian invasion. She is interested in social and political concerns and has collaborated with non-governmental organizations that promote minority rights, equality, and human rights.

Photos from left to right: ©Carolina Rapezzi, ©Yuen Ching (Hesther) Ng, ©Natalia Campos.

Photojournalism Nights 18th edition

Photojournalism Hub eighteenth edition of the Photojournalism Nights presents a superb line-up of guest photographers: Susannah Ireland, Jermaine Francis, Sabrina Merolla.

25th November 18:30 PM

The Invention Rooms
68 Wood Lane
London
W12 7TA

To Join: HERE

Rumi Munawar, former Miss Pakistan for UAE 2015 pictured in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 14th October 2016. Photo Credit: Susannah Ireland
Credit: Jermaine Francis
City, Country, Date DD MMM YYYY

Susannah Ireland, is a freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer based in London, UK but working internationally as well. She began her photojournalism career on a local news agency in Birmingham in 2006, graduating to London the following year to work principally for The Times and Independent newspapers. Following a brief stint working in India, Susannah moved back to London and now undertakes news, features and portraits assignments for a variety of international clients such as NBC News, The New York Times and NRC Handelsblad. She is a member of Women Photograph – a platform of independent photographers working to elevate the voices of women and non-binary visual storytellers worldwide. She is particularly interested in documenting the humanitarian impact of conflict and environmental disasters on local communities.

Jermaine Francis, is a London based Photographer who works with portraiture and conceptual documentary projects, using editorial, personal projects, and books as vehicles to tell these stories! Jermaine’s work has appeared in publications such as I-D, The Face Magazine, Autre Magazine & Beauty Papers. His work has recently appeared in Aperture’s latest publication the monograph Photo No, No’s, as well ICP book ICP Concerned, Global Images for Global crisis! Jermaine’s work has also exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery as part of the Taylor Wessing, The International Centre of Photography NYC in the group show #ICPConcerned and his solo show ‘The Invisibles’.

Sabrina Merolla has collaborated with Photojournalism Hub for more than one year. She is an awarded photographer, cultural studies researcher, multimedia journalist and participatory photography facilitator. Sabrina has a strong work ethic and is committed to telling stories in which the general fairness of the narration is granted by long pre-field and on-field research. She focuses on the environment, communities, health and human rights.

Donations are welcome. To Join: HERE