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… As 14 Make Final List
By Paul Williams
Life in the oil-rich city of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, as captured through the photographer’s lens, Thursday became the focus of a photo contest and photojournalism conference organized by Alliance Française de Port Harcourt and Sony.
Fourteen of such pictures, capturing images of poverty, urban hardship, love and friendship in the waterside, streets and beach areas of the city made the final list of the contest, with Graham Bell-Gam’s photo claiming the top prize, a Sony Apha Camera.
Director of Alliance Française de Port Harcourt, Marina Lacal, said the contest, tagged ‘Show Us Port Harcourt from A Fresh Perspective’ and organized in conjunction with Sony, seeks to “give exposure to young and talented photographers based in Rivers State, Nigeria.”
She said that Alliance Française, being a language and cultural centre, is committed to supporting projects that promote art and cultural exchanges.
According to Lacal, the photo contest is a component of a photojournalism festival that aims “to create a platform for exchanges between Nigerian and French photojournalists and other professionals working in various media outlets, while contributing to media and image education in the service of a more qualitative information accessible to all.
“This festival will also strengthen bonds within the community, inform about the profession, and reflect on its future,” she said.
International photo journalist, Victoria Uwemedimo, who anchored the ‘Conference on Photojournalism: An Intro to Visual Story Telling,’ drew attention to the fine line separating the photographer from the photojournalist.
Uwemedimo, whose work focuses on urban poverty, gender inequity and the climate crisis, noted the role of the photojournalist in highlighting issues that affect the society, while stressing the need for the photojournalist’s work to be based on images that factually, objectively and accurately portray the story at hand.
Adding political corruption, police brutality, environmental degradation among others, to issues confronting the Niger Delta, she reminded the Port Harcourt-based journalists who attended the event that “only you can tell your story.”
This being so, she said, because they (the journalists) know their region better “than anyone else,” understand its pains and issues, and can report it better than any foreign-based counterpart.
