“A Light in a Shadow” Internews Exhibit & Catalog
I taught a photojournalism workshop for Internews Ethiopia in May, which I wrote about in an earlier post. The exhibition of the students’ work was a big success, and I want to share the results.
Habesha Art Gallery exhibited “A Light in a Shadow,” which consists of two photo essays collaboratively produced by five working photojournalists. The first essay on Metahara, a transport hub between Addis Ababa and Djibouti, shows the risk factors contributing to the high rate of HIV infection in the area. The second essay on Yaheweh Nesi Income Generating Project, an association of women living with HIV, shows the proactive response to the AIDS epidemic as a model for positive living.
Newspaper editors and representatives from the Ministry of Health were wowed by the exhibition. They did not realize such talent could to be found in Addis Ababa or that visual media could act as such a powerful tool for reporting. This reaction is similar to the reaction I saw to the Ethiopian entries to the Democracy Video Challenge. There is plenty of local talent to produce salient visual media that speaks to pressing local issues. What is lacking is support in terms of education, funding and distribution outlets. Internews is among the organizations that eagerly offers local media makers the tools needed to realize their potential and give back to their communities.
The photo essays exhibited in “A Light in a Shadow” can be viewed in full in the exhibition catalog below. View the catalog in fullscreen mode for full impact. See also coverage of the exhibition on Internews’ website.










