The Photojournalism Hub Calendar 2026 showcasing the incredible work of photojournalists and documentary photographers who have contributed to our mission.
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.
The current Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected communities and people who were already marginalised, discriminated, and at the throng of continuous injustices and inequalities. We are bringing together stories, investigations from around the world to highlight and advocate and create the important exposure to leverage and bring about positive changes.
In the 11th edition of the Journal on “Injustice & Inequalities: Covid-19”, we present the work of Guilherme Bergamini which exposes some of the contradictory messages given by government officials. At the start of the pandemic, Guilherme listed 27 countries cited in the news above published on March 3, 2020, He searched Google “Street View” at random and appropriated each photograph, covering the people in the image with red circles. The monitoring carried out by the Federal Government is contradictory for what he observed in the actions taken by the President of the Federative Republic of Brazil. What is at stake, as he understands it, are the lives of millions of Brazilians who survive each day with minimal wage or nothing, an unjustifiable and impractical social inequality.
Searching the Internet about the new COVID-19 around the world, I saw the website of the Ministry of Health of Brazil. I came across a list of 27 countries that are being monitored by the Federal Government. I listed these 27 countries cited in the news above published on March 3, 2020, I searched in Google “Street View” at random and appropriated each photograph, covering the people in the image with red circles. This monitoring carried out by the Federal Government is contradictory for what I observe in the actions taken by the President of the Federative Republic of Brazil. What is at stake, if he understands it, are the lives of millions of Brazilians who survive each day with minimal wage or nothing, an unjustifiable and impractical social inequality. And in this conflict of vanities, interests and power, we can come to an unprecedented tragedy. Never imagined that i would live an experience of pandemic and social confinement. From that I remember a passage from the inauguration speech of the President-elect of the Federative Republic of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, on January 1, 2019, in Brasília, in the Federal District, Brazil:
“May God bless this great nation. Brazil above all. God above all. This is our flag, which will never be red. It will only be red if our blood is needed to keep it green and yellow.” – Part of the inauguration speech of the President-elect of the Federative Republic of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro.
Reporter photographic and visual artist, Guilherme Bergamini is Brazilian and graduated in Journalism. For more than two decades, he has developed projects with photography and the various narrative possibilities that art offers. The works of the artist dialogue between memory and social political criticism. He believes in photography as the aesthetic potential and transforming agent of society. Awarded in national and international competitions, Guilherme Bergamini participated in collective exhibitions in 44 countries.
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
Beau Patrick Coulon,Beau Patrick Coulon, Beau Patrick Coulon, is a New Orleans based photographer and filmmaker whose imagery draws from class struggle and sub-cultural movements. At The Photojournalism Nights, Beau will be talking about his latest book, Revel & Revolt, a straightforward-yet-personal book of photography that documents protests, parades, and the punk scene in New Orleans from 2013 to 2020. It is published by Burn Barrel Press and DNO books.
Arsène Mpiana Monkwe, is a photojournalist and active artist based in Kinshasa. Arsène is also a tutor at the Department of Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa. He has been Nominated for the Joop Swart masterclass (2020) of the World Press Foundation. Ini 2019, he became a freelance writer for Jeune Afrique then joined Agence France-Presse and in 2021, he tried his luck with the New York Times.
Justin Makangara, is an independent photojournalist and documentary photographer based in Kinshasa. His work focuses on underreported developing documentary and storytelling reporting on stories focusing on social justice, politics, music, and daily life. Justin is a member of APJD African Photojournalist Database, VII academy Insider, and Congo in conversation.
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
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
The Photojournalism Nights is an event that promotes committed and courageous photojournalism and engages the public to social justice and human rights.
The second edition of the Photojournalism Nights at Elephant West gallery was met with an engaged audience, inspirational and talented guest photographers presentations, keynotes by Emma Perfect, global head of diversity and inclusion at Soho House, media partner Photo Archive News, networking and conversations till late at night at the bar/lounge of eclectic Elephant West gallery and the opportunity to bring home one of the donated photographs from the photographers printed with the support of Genesis Imaging UK.
I could not ask for a better night to present and showcase powerful long form photojournalistic projects exposing, reflecting and questioning the current political climate through the notion of European identity and Belonging. Presentations began with Claudia Leisinger with her project Europe Revisited documenting the lives of Roma families living in stark poverty in Serbia which questions the distribution of welfare and resources in Europe. Followed by Pete Boyd, whose work looks at where and how young people think they belong: what it facilitates; how they define who is a member and who not; how they signal their belonging; who they are allowed to be and what they can express; what they consciously adopt and what others foist upon them; and what they have to do to survive it, then to Sukhy Hullait who for 100 days documented in various cities in the UK, the opinions and feelings of people towards Brexit. Finally, we had the presentation of Quetzal Maucci, whose work looks at the lives of children of immigrants in the States and in the UK demonstrating the universality of those people caught in-between belonging. Four people won a photograph each from the raffle tickets and went home with on original print. This was made possible by the donation of the guest photographers and by Genesis Imaging which have supported this event. There were a lot of questions at the Q&A and I am guessing much more later as people stayed behind till late conversing and getting to know each other.
The Photojournalism Nights are organised by the Photojournalism Hub to bring together photojournalists and share their work, discuss important social justice issues in order to engage in a meaningful way to important topics whilst support the photojournalists which often put their lives at risk in doing this. The Photojournalism Nights are run bi-monthly at the Elephant West gallery and the next date will be announced shortly. If you wish to follow our work click here.
Photojournalist Hub eleventh edition of the Photojournalism Nights presents an amazing line-up of photographers: Barbara Traver, Brian Ongoro, Hannah Kozak.
Barbara Traver, is a photographer based in Spain. She studied at the Espai d’art fotogràfic school (Valencia, Spain) and completed a master’s degree in production and photographic projects at the same centre together with the University of Valencia. That same year, Barbara won a scholarship to study in Madrid (Spain) at the EFTI school, where she took a course in contemporary photography and another in photojournalism and documentary photography. She has self-published two photo-books, exhibited in various national and international venues, and given several lectures where she delves into visual education and bringing photography to all audiences. Barbara is also the founder of @iphotograp.her , a collective of women photographers around the world.
Brian Ongoro, is a photojournalist based in Kisumu, Kenya majoring on documentary, editorial and commercial photography. He has carried out assignments for media houses, news agencies and non-governmental organisations. Brian’s work is known for covering East Africa and has been published nationally and internationally, including BBC, Al Jazeera, Guardian, CNN, Bloomberg, Le Monde. Brian is a contributor of AFP photo.
Hannah Kozak, is a photographer based in Los Angeles, California, who was born to a Polish father and a Guatemalan mother. At the age of ten, she was given a Kodak Brownie camera by her father, Sol, a survivor of eight Nazi forced labour camps and began instinctively capturing images that felt honest and real. While working in a camera store at the age of twenty, Hannah’s life changed when she met a successful stunt woman who became her mentor and helped her start a career in stunts. For over twenty-five years, Hannah followed a career in the film industry capturing images of far away lands, however after decades of standing in for someone else, Hannah has turned the camera on herself documenting subjects that touches her emotionally, including her painful and deeply touching relationship with her mother, powerfully captured in ‘He Threw the Last Punch Too Hard’ photo book and photo story.
The Photojournalism Nights is an event that promotes committed and courageous photojournalism and engages the public to social justice and human rights.
