On Thursday 28 August Inkanyiso invited five guest speakers to speak to young student photographers at Aurora Girls High School in Soweto.

The guests were Gabi Ngcobo an artist, curator and Lecturer at the Wits School of Arts, University of Witwatersrand, Megan Heilig and Jammy-Lee Brophy both third year art students at the Wits School of Arts, Ziyanda Majozi, an artist specializing in mosaic from Cape Town and Martha Qumba, a freelance journalist from Cape Town. The purpose of this platform was to motivate the high school girls who are presently learning photography with Inkanyiso.

L-R: Gabi Ngcobo, Ziyanda Majozi, Megan Heilig, Jammy-Lee and Martha Qumba, our guest speakers for the day…

In February 2014 Inkanyiso and collaborators initiated a photography project to empower girls and to inspire them to consider photography as a career path. The debating team joined the photography group. The two teams added to what became a robust discussion and asked questions with regards to how best to self-organise in order for them to get the best result for their respective fields of interests. The issue of fund raising came up and became an interesting topic of discussion.

On the issue of fund raising Ngcobo talked about the importance of thinking creatively and reinventing strategies of seeking funds. By drawing on her own creative approaches Ngcobo advised on various ways of raising funds especially those that consider “human infrastructure’ and collaborative strategies. Quoting an African proverb Ngcobo said “alone we go fast, together we go far!”

Megan and Jammy-Lee talked about their approaches to their work especially how they work within their collaborative platform known as “Halfa Pictcha.”
They also offered to do printmaking workshop for the learners. The printmaking workshop took place on Sunday, 31^st of August 2014 at the Wits School of Arts.

Ziyanda talked about her work, some of which was recently exhibited at the Joburg Art Fair as well as various steps taken by artists to improve their work. She made an example of residency programmes she has taken part in and the importance of networking.

Martha emphasized writing skills so that the learners can document their own history and stories for themselves. She then stressed the importance of writing and encouraged them to write.

The afternoon was full of testimonies from the guests as well as from the learners which made this platform one of sharing and learning about the desires of the learners as well as the working strategies of the guests.

Previous links
2014 Aug. 30: Insightful analysis from the guest speaker

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2014 Aug. 30: Young aspiring photographers experimenting lithography

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2014 Aug.1: InterGenerational conversation with current and future stars

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2014 July 16: Through the eyes of young women photographers

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2014 July 12:   From Soweto to Paris for the love of photography

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2014 July 13:  “Give children cameras not candies”