The Photojournalism Hub Calendar 2026 showcasing the incredible work of photojournalists and documentary photographers who have contributed to our mission.
We were delighted to host a new photojournalism nights series event ‘In Focus’ in collaboration with the west London arts and media centre Riverside Studios. Our guest photographers of the evening were Denise Laura Baker and Etienne Bruce . Owning to the ‘In Focus’ series, both photographers engage within the realm of socially engaged documentary photography and their projects are of a long form.
Etienne Bruce presented Xenitia, which is an archive, centered on displacement to Greece. And Dr. Denise Laura Baker shared Deeds, Not Words: motivations and methods of resistance from a photographer’s perspective, currently being shown until April 13th at Gallery 74, Waterside Arts in Sale, Manchester, which explores the myriad ways photography crosses into the realm of activism and the complex relationship between photojournalism and activism.
One of the highlights of the event was the inspiring work shared by the photographers and the engagement of the audiences. The atmosphere at Riverside Studios buzzed with energy as the fully packed studios engaged in lively discussions, and Q&As.
Furthermore, conversations flowed freely well after the event ended, which it denotes the power of documentary photography and photojournalism. Thanks to our guest photographers, whose work brought people together around photography and the voices that might otherwise remain unheard.
Next Photojournalism Hub event at Riverside Studios is on the 22nd April 2024.
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We’re delighted to welcome Aidan Brooks and Andrew Blowers to the 36th edition of the Photojournalism Nights.
Both photographers use the tool of photography as a means to connect with others in an authentic, raw and meaningful way whether through exploring encounters with strangers or documenting the street around them.
Photojournalism Nights is an event that invites photojournalists and documentary photographers to share their powerful, committed photography dedicated to social justice and human rights causes. Photojournalism Nights event is an opportunity for the public to ask questions, found out how to be involved and learn insights behind the powerful photos stories that are helping advance social justice and human rights around the world. After the presentations, the audience and the guest photographers can continue conversations and socialising in Riverside Studios bar and coffee lounge area.
Aidan Brooks I am a community photographer and visual storyteller, with the goal of capturing individuals in an authentic and meaningful way. I use my camera to initiate conversations and discover how people feel in the moment. My passion for photography began during my childhood as a shy boy growing up in Wirral, Merseyside. Instead of asking direct questions, I found comfort behind the camera, which gave me confidence and security when interacting with people. This experience has taught me to challenge my judgments, approach things with courage and curiosity, and be a good listener. I believe in the power of being present for people and providing a safe and empathetic environment where they can express themselves freely. Aidan will be presenting selected images/stories to talk about why “talking to strangers is important for us all.” www.aidanbrooks.co.uk @aidan_brooks
Andrew Blowers Having first picked up a camera after growing tired of taking phone snapshots, Andrew spent £50 on a film SLR in 2017, and was hooked. Alongside photography, Andrew is also an accomplished semi-professional bass player and during the COVID pandemic and lockdown of 2020 he found himself without a creative outlet and his enjoyment of street photography turned into documenting the world around him. Exclusively shooting black and white, he greatly favours the use the old ways of film and the darkroom, only utilising digital when needs must. His style is honest and open, empathetic and devoid of visual trickery. He is a member of documentary collective New Exit Group @newexitgroup where copies of collaborative debut zine Bardo are available. The project based on blues in Soho is being sequenced and designed, available soon. Darkroom prints from projects are available on request. @andyblowers @newexitgroup
Powerful photography, insights and experiences of documenting wars and displacement.
The consequences and legacy of wartime persecution and displacement are reflected in the work of photojournalists and documentary photographers, who have played a pivotal role in exposing, be of a testimony and witness of these ordeals. Displacement has always been hand in hand with war and conflict, as people flee for safety and security. Photographers have recorded not only the physical displacement but also have conferred through their stories and photographs the extent of emotional, psychological trauma that these experiences cause. An extent that goes over time and sometimes will never heal. In recent years up to today, as we are witnessing one of the largest exodus of people forced to leave their homes in Ukraine, the scale of population displacement by war has been an incredibly stark reality. The reverberations are immense with thousands whose lives are in limbo, experiencing the impact of trauma and loss.
We have invited a group of photographers, whose work and courage have closely documented these realities. Their accounts and photos have contributed to important documentation as well as vital historical and accountability documentation.
We are incredibly honoured to present to you all our guests photographers George Nickels, Quintina Valero, Ed Ram and Ines Gil, who will share their powerful photography, insights and experiences on war displacement.
Ed Ram is a photojournalist and reporter with an interest in conflict, security, and climate change. He has been based in East Africa for for nearly three years, reporting from countries including Kenya, Mozambique, DRC, Sudan, Somaliland and Uganda. Ed works on personal photography projects and for European and US news organisations including newspapers, photo agencies and broadcasters. Most recently, he has been covering the conflict in Ukraine for the Guardian and PBS Newshour. Before working freelance, Ed spent 8 years working as a filmmaker, journalist and senior producer for BBC News.
George Nickels is a freelance photojournalist and has been working in South East Asia and Europe since 2011. The primary focus of his work is covering social conflict and humanitarian issues. Currently based in the United Kingdom, he is a member of The Frontline Freelance Register. Born in Oxfordshire, England in 1982, he is a self-taught photographer, with work published in leading newspapers, magazines and media outlets worldwide.
Ines Gil is a French freelance journalist currently based in Lebanon, after having worked in Israel and the Palestinian territories for two years (Feb. 2018 to Apr. 2020). In August 2017, she travelled to Mosul to cover the developments in Iraq in the aftermath of the war against the so-called Islamic State. More recently, she covered the Beirut port explosion (August 2020) and the war over Nagorno-Karabakh (October 2020). She covered the situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban took power (November-December 2021). She has covered the war in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion. Writer and passionate about photography, she works on several media supports.
Quintina Valero is a Spanish freelance press and documentary photographer. Quintina moved to London in 2001 where she studied photojournalism at the University of the Arts and has since worked for London newspapers as The Archant Group, South London Press, Ham & High, Hackney Gazette, and as a stringer at Getty Images, and lately for the night digital editions of the Telegraph Media Group. Her long-term projects focus on documenting the lives of people affected by conflict, violence and poverty pursuing stories about human rights and social issues. Her work about migration, sex trafficking and the impact of Chernobyl’s nuclear accident have received international awards and featured in The Guardian, Sunday Times, Thomson Reuter Foundation, Stern Magazine, Internationale, BBC, and El País among others. She has exhibited in the UK, Spain, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Peru, Colombia and Brazil. She is passionate about cultural exchange collaborating often with international artists to produce art and educational projects. In June 2021, The History Press published her book “London’s Record Shops” in collaboration with writer Garth Cartwright.
Valentina Sinis is a documentary photographer and the moderator of the event. She is based in China and the Middle East. Valentina’s projects gravitate toward the quirky and unusual, and portray offbeat realities and people on the margins, they show a deep bond with he subjects. Her photos are a thorough but delicate insight into idiosyncrasies, hidden meanings, and all those little gestures that are either taken for granted or sensationalized — but rarely investigated. Fluent in Chinese , she started by working for European Pressphoto Agency, EPA, in China. Her pictures have been published in major newspapers and magazines worldwide; TIME, The Guardian, La Repubblica, among others. Her works have been exhibited in Europe and China. Among the recognitions and awards, Valentina was selected as one of the 6X6 Europe Talents, by World Press Photo, 2019. The following year, Valentina was the winner of Female in Focus 2020 by British Journal of Photography and she was recognised with the Award of Excellence for Issue Reporting Picture Story in POY 2021. https://www.valentinasinis.com
This event is co-organised with Frontline Club and hosted at Frontline Club in Paddington.
Ofir Berman is an Israeli documentary photographer and visual storyteller whose work focuses on social and cultural issues. Her work gives an intimate view of people living within the fringes of society and aims to capture the resilience and the authentic spirit in the lives of the subjects. In 2020 she finished her Master studies in Madrid and continued to work on personal projects. Recently, she has been documenting Palestinian refugees from Gaza, with the intention of provoking discourse and a new vision of Palestinian-Israeli relations through photography, media, and a new perception of interpersonal communication. The series was published in different European and Israeli newspapers and in the French i24news TV channel. In 2021 she was chosen for the 30 under 30 women photographers by Artpil and was nominated for the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award.
Ruth Toda-Nationphotographic work explores themes present in her everyday life documenting issues relating to family, ageing, loneliness, transience and departure. Her photographic journey began documenting on the streets of Liverpool in the 1980’s. Ruth is currently living in Milton Keynes where she continues to document issues around aging as well as developing new work entitled ‘Birthing a City’ which explores the development of a new town and the lived experiences of its residents.
Sebastian Barros – Løng is a freelance documentary and fashion photographer based in Bogotá, Colombia covering politics, social issues, and health working as a contributor for Italian agency NurPhoto and as a stringer for the Agence France-Presse. Sebastián’s work covers the COVID-19 pandemic and how it actively changes and evolves in Colombia along the raise of protests and how politics shape Colombia’s next presidential elections, also helping young and new documentary and journalism photographers at @longvisualpress a photo agency stablished by him and his girlfriend that distributes their photos across the globe reaching local news sites in Colombia and international ones as The Guardian.
Photographer Denise Laura Baker answers questions from the public.
Written by Fatima Sanchez
On Friday 23rd, the Photojournalism Hub hosted the 15th edition of the Photojournalism Nights event at The Studio inside The Westworks, dynamic venue in White City Place.
The night was filled with an engaged public, thought-provoking conversations and presentations from outstanding photographers documenting outstanding current affairs .
Our guests for the night included Denise Laura Baker,Simon King and Carolina Rapezzi who shared great insights on the work they have been producing over the last few years of their career.
The event started with the presentation of the photojournalist and portrait photographer Denise Laura Baker. Denise’s work is heavily embedded in socially engaged work. She has been documenting communities and events since the age of 11 as well as becoming a psychologist, studies that have added an incredible depth to her photographic work. In her compelling presentation, she explained the importance of drawing back from any subjectivity, ‘putting aside your personal biases’, which also ‘strengthens the [psychological] work’ that she captures.
Furthermore, her family environment, engaged in social justice, has contributed to her inclination towards photographing issues that surround communities around the UK and Wales. Her key interests surround the travellers and environmentalist communities.
One compelling aspect from Denise’s personal approach to photojournalist work is that she is in the look-out for the bigger picture in a story. Yet, not losing to capture the small details, like it is the human “gaze” in an image.
Simon Black talks about his latest and ongoing project.
The second guest of the evening was Simon King, British documentary photographer who brought to us captivating documentary work shot on film. He presented us his photographic documentation of Washington, D.C. when it was subject to militarised observation to a degree not seen in about 53 years, due to fears of right-wing violence after the MAGA riot at the Capitol of January 6.
When asked why investigating this topic, he explained ‘to keep exploring Patriarchism and the political landscape in America’.
Simon proved transparency, honesty and openness with his words which all encompassed with the strong visual work from his project, yet to be shown in its entirety.
Simon’s photographs seem to bring together elements that form conversations and interactions that are symbolic and representative of the political landscape in America. Some of the work he shared from this project evidenced how the journalists and police force members’ body language mirrored the political scene at the time.
Carolina Rapezzi shares insights behind her iconic photo of a girl taking a short rest amid e-waste disposal in Ghana.
The last guest of the Photojournalism Nights event, was Carolina Rapezzi, who is a self-taught Italian photographer who has been working on social, humanitarian, and environmental issues. She took the initiative to merging her journalistic background and interest for photography to document current affairs such as migration issues, various protests, and ultimately environmental issues.
Carolina introduced us to her timely long-term project Burning dreams which she has invested herself in for the past few years. Her project was inspired by an investigation that she came across while researching on e-waste. A gps was placed inside an old washing machine in the UK and it eventually ended up been shipped to Agbogbloshie in Ghana. This was Carolina’s starting point of her ongoing and timely project.
She travelled to Ghana to investigate the way the e-waste was disposed as well as the impact of this in the communities. She learned that the cheapest way to get rid of huge amounts of e-waste was by burning it – often by local children.
Her project exposes the impact of disposing e-waste illegally and/or using methods that are not environmentally friendly.
Her presentation also opened up conversations on how important it is for a country to develop and sustain several sources of income, in order to divert from reliance on e-waste disposal, a completely non-sustainable activity.
Her presentation and insights, make us reconsider expanding the life of our day-to-day devices such as our mobile phones or laptops, something we often overlook.
Furthermore, her powerful work stresses how important it is for environmental issues to be talked about at a global level rather than simply national because of its scale and repercussions.
The Photojournalism Nights presented photographers whose work is committed to bringing to the wider public topics that impacts social justice. Bringing people together to learn and talk about these pressing issues is a fundamental step for action and positive change.
Ghana, Accra, November 2018. Rashida is a young girl originally from the North of Ghana, she sells water in the scrap yard of Agbogbloshie. Along with other girls living in the area, she carries water bags into a wheelbarrow and sell them for 1 Ghanaian Cedi each (the equivalent of £0,15) to workers who need to extinguish the fire and cool down the copper extracted from burning cables, wires and other appliances.
Carolina Rapezzi is an award-winning photographer based in London, part of the collective Women Photograph. Her works focus on social, humanitarian and environmental issues. She worked on migration issues in Sicily and France, covered the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution in Moscow and St. Petersburg, followed several protest movements in London, including the more recent Black Lives Matter and, since 2018 she has been working on environmental issues. Her independent project Burning Dreams on electronic waste in Ghana has been awarded internationally and exhibited multiple times: Portrait of Humanity 2019, Winner Flash Forward 2019, Winner 1st Prize Single Images, Winner World Water Day 2020, Shortlisted Sony World Photography 2020, Winner Siena International Award 2020.
Denise Laura Baker is a photojournalist, documentary, and portrait photographer. Her work draws on influences from the many different strands of her career, particularly her time as an ethnographic psychologist where she interviewed and collected the stories of the people with whom she worked. She has been exhibiting since 2016 and have, exhibited at various locations in Wales, including holding her first solo exhibition as part of LLAWN 2019 (Llandudno arts Weekend). She is the recipient of an Arts Council for Wales R&D grant for a project examining interconnecting communities within Gwynedd, Conwy and Ynys Mon. She also teaches and give talks on the role of narrative in photography and photo book making.
Simon King is a documentary photographer, currently working on a series of long-term projects, all on 35mm film. Simon teaches at UAL, and with Leica Akademie (UK). Simon works with the collective New Exit Group to publish photo-essays highlighting intimate, local stories. Simon’s recent publications include BARDO (in collaboration with NEG), a USA Digest which includes work from 2019 – Winter 2021, and Transiting Bulgaria, from his recent time there over Christmas 2020.
The Photojournalism Nights is an event that promotes committed and courageous photojournalism and engages the public to social justice and human rights. To join HERE
Thanks to White City Place for supporting our events
