Harare - The U.S. Embassy yesterday helped ZimbabweInPictures (ZIP www.zimbabweinpictures.com) launch the latest phase in its endeavors to promote photojournalism in Zimbabwe by donating photojournalism equipment and announcing support for professional photography training in Zimbabwe next year.
This great country of Zimbabwe, which was liberated at great cost and is now struggling to transform from within, deserves an equally great photographic record of its modern history. Zimbabwe must be captured on film, documented and archived by Zimbabwean photographers for the future posterity of all citizens, said Ambassador Charles Ray during the donation ceremony. The Embassy donated two professional-quality digital cameras with accessories and editing software to ZIP at the Book Caf on Tuesday.
The photography training and mentoring project will help to create and develop human capital in the industry. We hope to see ZimbabweInPictures grow from strength to strength, becoming both a leading photography training institute and a leading online photographic news agency, said Ambassador Ray. ZIP founder and director, Chris Kabwato said the project hopes to fill the training gap in Zimbabwe for photojournalists. Most Zimbabwean photographers are forced to go to South Africa to acquire professional education in the field.
After 3 years of providing coverage of the Zimbabwean story in pictures, we realized there was a gap in training. Our vision is to capture the whole spectrum of our existence – the joys, anxieties, and fears – in Zimbabwe through photos, said Kabwato. ZIP has evolved since its start in 2008 from an online picture source to an institution for training and photographic services. The project has covered the Zimbabwean elections, the xenophobic attacks in South Africa, and other many social and political events. ZIPs masterclass training programme commences in February 2011.
Post published in: Arts