Global Photojournalism Experts in Egypt for PHOTOWEEK workshops, seminars and other events

Weeklong festival of photojournalism events to take place at Ahram, Akhbar Al Youm, Supreme Press Council, Middle East News Agency, Press Syndicate and Cairo University media training centers

USAID-funded Media Development Program has been working to help professionalize media for 4 years

The Media Development Program (MDP), a USAID funded media strengthening initiative in Egypt, is holding a week-long series of photojournalism related workshops, seminars and lectures from March 14-18.

MDP has been helping to professionalize the media in Egypt since 2006. MDP works with media training centers at the nation’s largest media institutions, providing training workshop and consultations with global experts in key media fields such as photojournalism.

During PHOTOWEEK, workshops will be held at Ahram, Akhbar Al Youm, Cairo University, the Middle East News Agency, the Supreme Press Council and Cairo University’s Faculty of Mass Communication.

As such, Egyptian media training centers will be a focal point of intense professional activity relating to such an important issue for the media regionally and globally. Via the PHOTOWEEK events, MDP is keen on emphasizing the vital role photojournalism must play in an increasingly visual culture.

The opening event of PHOTOWEEK will be the inauguration of an exhibition of prize-winning photographs taken by photographers from Minya, Aswan and Alexandria as part of MDP’s first-ever Local Photo Contest.

During PHOTOWEEK, the workshops, seminars and other activates will cover vital issues related to the future of photojournalism and will feature local and internationally renowned experts such as:

Shawn Baldwin is an American freelance photographer based in Cairo, whose work regularly appears in The New York Times as well as other international publications including Time, Vanity Fair and the New York Times Magazine. Shawn lived in Baghdad for three years covering the war in Iraq. He has worked throughout the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.

Michael Robinson Chávez is a US staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times. His global assignments have taken him to South Central Los Angeles, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Pictures of the Year International, White House News Photographers’ Association and others have awarded him. He has published two books of photography: Awaiting the Rain: Photographs from Peru and Dharavi: Mumbai’s Hidden Heart.

Randa Shaath was born in Philadelphia, USA to a Palestinian father and an Egyptian mother. Shaath’s black and white images graced the pages of Al Ahram Weekly from its launch in 1994 to 2005. She has exhibited her photographic projects in galleries across four continents and is currently the photo editor for El Sherouk newspaper in Cairo. A book of her images, Under the Same Sky, was published in 2005.

Thomas Hartwell is an American photographer, who has covered the Middle East from a base in Cairo for over 30 years on assignment for international publications and organizations. He has taught photojournalism at universities in Egypt, USA and Algeria and is a founding board member of the Contemporary Image Collective, an Egyptian NGO that promotes professional practices in the visual arts.

Enric Martí is currently based in Mexico City as the Chief of Photography for the Associated Press for Latin America and the Caribbean. Martí has been awarded many international prizes for his work and has been a member of the jury for the World Press Photo contest in 2007. Lately Enric´s job has been mostly about editing, directing and mentoring a remarkable group of younger photographers.

A full schedule of PHOTOWEEK events is attached.

For more information please contact the Media Development Program (MDP) at 27377055

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Local Photo Contest Proves Egypt is Not Just Cairo

Winners announced in groundbreaking photojournalism contest highlighting talented photographers from Alexandria, Minya and Aswan

USAID-funded Media Development Program has been working with media for 4 years to help professionalize coverage outside of Cairo

The Media Development Program (MDP), a USAID funded media strengthening initiative in Egypt, has announced the results of its first photojournalism contest for photographers from Alexandria, Minya and Aswan.

MDP has been helping to professionalize the media in Alexandria, Minya and Aswan since 2006. This has taken place via training workshop and consultations with local media outlets and media professionals in these three vibrant Egyptian governorates.

Addressing the need for training and recognition of photographers working outside of Cairo, MDP held a series of workshops in the governorates, followed by a juried photo competition. MDP received over 600 submissions from almost 50 photographers and a diverse jury of internationally recognized photojournalists chose the following winners in 3 categories.

PORTRAIT

1st Place            Ahmed Shawky/Alexandria

2nd Place           Fatma Said Abdel Fattah/Aswan    

3rd Place           Malak Younan Aziz/Minya

Runner-up          Laila Khalil/Alexandria

PLACES UNSEEN

1st Place            Mahmoud Abou Zaid/Alexandria  

2nd Place           Hazem Adel Gouda/Alexandria

3rd Place           Abdel Massih Awni Abdel Massih/Minya

Runner-up          Mohamed El-Boushy/Alexandria

PHOTO STORY

1st Place            Tarek El-Faramawy/Alexandria

2nd Place           Amgad Fouad Gerges/Aswan

3rd Place           Tarek Hussein/Alexandria

An exhibition of the winning images will open on March 14^th at 7:30 pm at the Contemporary Image Collective, 20 Safeya Zaghloul St., Mounira (off Kasr el Aini), at 7:30PM. The prizes to be given include 9 digital cameras and a chance to do a paid assignment in their home base for a major news organization.

The images are also being published in a book entitled Egypt is not just Cairo: Photojournalism from Alexandria, Minya and Aswan.

The Local Photo Contest is part of a larger MDP event called PHOTOWEEK taking place between March 14-18, 2010, in Cairo at MDP-partner media training centers such as Al-Ahram, Akhbar Al Youm, Cairo University, the Supreme Press Council, the Middle East News Agency, and the Press Syndicate.

Information about the Jury is provided in a separate document.

For more information please contact the Media Development Program (MDP) at 27377055

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أسبوع التصوير الصحفى

لمزيد من المعلومات يرجى الاتصال ببرنامج تطوير الإعلام على الرقم : 27377055