The power of the eye, Photographers 
Teen's photography takes him to Ethiopia
BY BETH HARTNETT
IRVINE – At 17, Beckman senior Dean Shu is already a decorated photographer.
His images have appeared in Rolling Stone and outside Washington D.C.'s Capitol Building after he won the 2010 Congressional Art Competition for California's 48th Congressional District.
His latest gig, however, has taken him to international levels.
Shu returned last month from learning and teaching photography in Ethiopia after winning the Eye See global competition sponsored by Sony Corp. and UNICEF. Of the five international winners ages 16 to 19, Shu was the only one selected from the United States.
The Eye See workshop Oct. 31–Nov. 4 aimed to provide youth across the globe with the opportunity to express themselves through taking pictures. For Shu, this universal notion is what snapping photos is all about.
"Photography brings people together," said Shu. "It conveys meaning without a language barrier."
Shu first fell in love with photography as a little boy, flipping through his family's National Geographic magazines.
"The photos explored exotic locales that I assumed I'd never have the chance to see for myself," Shu said.
Now, amid college applications and fall exams, Shu can add global photographer to the checklist.
"The experiences that he's had have widened his world view," said Goang Jong, Shu's father. "He has been able to combine elements of his fine art photography and photojournalism, enabling him to create more compelling stories with his shots."
Shu put down the picture books and started pursuing his own photography at 11, after his parents bought their first digital camera.
"I kind of took over the family (camera)," he said. In his freshman year, Shu started saving up to buy his own equipment. After a year of free-lance graphic design work, Shu purchased his first camera. When not at school, he took his gear everywhere, taking pictures about the house and at his youth group.
"He is able to turn ordinary objects into something extraordinary," said Engie Salama, a friend of Shu's. "He has such a good eye."
Pictures he shot while volunteering at one such youth group event in Mexico earned him his way to Ethiopia. Some photographs he took of women and children waiting in line for health care caught the attention of fellow volunteers and friends, who encouraged Shu to submit them for the Eye See competition. "I saw it as an opportunity to combine two of my biggest passions: photography and helping others," Shu said. "I knew it was a big competition, however, and that there would be a lot of people applying."
Thousands of applicants worldwide entered the contest, and Shu was among only five winners. Along with the four other winners – from Brazil, Morocco, New Zealand and Romania – and under the supervision of renowned photographer Reza, Shu taught 34 Ethiopian youths about his knowledge of photography. Beyond the troubles of jet lag and adjusting to traveling alone for the first time, communication was the most challenging roadblock for Shu.
"The only other winner I could have a long conversation with was Rachita (Castelino) from New Zealand," he said. "We had language facilitators, but it was still very difficult to communicate."
However, Reza (he goes by one name) taught Shu that working through language barriers is the key to good photos. While on assignment at an Ethiopian mother's home, Shu recalls watching Reza converse with the woman through a translator.
"We got to know all of her details: how she was living, how she was making money and how many kids she had," said Shu. "By doing that, you create an image with more emotional impact; you know how to portray the subject in the most accurate light."
Learning to take photos without bias was the most important lesson learned, said Shu.
"Ethiopia is a very poverty-stricken country, but I found there was also a lot of joy," he said. "A lot of the pictures I took depicted happy people instead of the stereotypical sad African image you see in the media."
Now back home, Shu plans on hitting the books before focusing his camera on any new assignments. Though there are no specific photo plans in his near future, Shu is looking to pursue photography as a minor in college next year.
"I'm not sure if I am capable of doing this professionally, but it's definitely something I want to consider," Shu said. "For right now, I am just trying to keep my camera with me as much as possible and have fun with it."
Contact the writer: 714-796-7949 or ejames@ocregister.com
By Groum Abate
The first edition of the Addis Foto Fest has brought together African and African diaspora photographers to foster a dialogue through various events and workshops.
The one week festival that runs from December 7 to 12, 2010, will showcase thirteen international photo exhibitions, residency programs, video installations, film screenings, photo projections, and panel discussions that will be conducted in fifteen different venues around Addis Ababa.
During the week-long festival, three photography artists, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Yo-Yo Gonthier and Dawit L. Petros, will exhibit the work they started this past week around Addis Ababa for twelve days.The photographers said they came to Addis to inspire colleague artists and to spread the word about photography in Ethiopia, in which Aida Muluneh, according to the artists, is the main engine of the festival. Aida is the director and curator of Foto Fest.
As part of the residency program, selected photographers and artists from Ethiopia will work alongside the mentioned photographers. The artists will be creating a body of work that will be displayed alongside the festival activities.
The artists, along with thirty other artists, will display their works, “Body & Soul” by Yo-Yo Gonthier, “The sweet sound of quiet footsteps” by Akinbode Akinbiyi, and “Addis Chromes” by Dawit L. Petros, that are expected to be the major highlights of the festival. The artists are Africans coming from all over the continent and from abroad.
Akinbode Akinbiyi
Akinbode Akinbiyi is born to Nigerian parents in England in 1946 and now lives in Berlin, Germany. He says to be interested in street photography and what is happening in the society. He is inspired by daily activities and wants to penetrate deeper into society to explore how people live.
Akinbode has been working in photography for the last 35 years, and he mainly focuses on large, sprawling mega cities. Previously, he worked in the four biggest cities of the African continent – Lagos, Cairo, Kinshasa and Johannesburg. His aim was to spread these topics through art books and exhibitions. Akindbode has taken part in many international exhibitions and his publications have been printed worldwide. He also works as a curator of photo exhibitions and workshops.
During his stay in Addis Ababa, it’s his first time, the roads will be his main focus. The project will include Addis to the list of his works around Africa. His work will be exhibited at Gebrekristos Desta Gallery under the theme “The sweet sound of quiet footsteps.”
Akinbode’s school and university experiences reach from Nigeria to England and Germany. He took his BA degree in English at Ibadan University, Nigeria. Akinbode has been working as a freelance photographer since 1977. He got a STERN reportage grant to work in the cities of Lagos, Kano and Dakar in 1987 and was co-founder of UMZANZSI, a cultural center in the Clermont Township in Durban, South Africa, in 1993.
Yo-Yo Gonthier
Yo-Yo Gonthier was born on La Reunion Island in 1974. He says to be interested in the lives of ordinary people who are trying to exist by themselves in a dominant economy. Yo-Yo said that he is inspired by faces of people and expressions they reflect.
Yo-Yo graduated with a Masters in Photography and Multimedia from Paris VIII University in 1997 and has since been working as a freelance photographer, primarily based in Paris. However his inspiration started some fifteen years back.
The subject of his work is the erasure of memory in western world where the essential values nowadays seem to be speed, progress and technology. He also tries to seek the sense of wonder, in a tension between attraction and repulsion, bringing his own interpretation to night-time photography and the use of light and dark/chiaroscuro.
He is also interested in the remnants of France’s colonial past, investigating the friction between history and memory. Yo-Yo also said that he is into handicraft workers and is interested in their production process.
Yo-Yo will present his work under the title “Body & Soul” for which he has been working with different Ethiopian photographers in projections and installations that are based on the photographs. He said new music will also accompany his works during the festival.
He is currently artist in residence at St. Exupery School near Paris, working on a project called La Peau de la lune. He recently completed a commission for the Parc de la Villette, Paris, for the 2009 Kréyol Factory exhibition and currently participates in the Biennial of African Photography, in Bamako, Mali.
Dawit L. Petros
Dawit L. Petros was born in Asmara, Eritrea but considers himself to be a Habesha. He said that he is interested in specifics of a place and the idea of process. Dawit said that he will exhibit his works on one big glass wall with all the pictures posted on it under the theme “Addis Chromes”. Dawit received his diploma in 2007 from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA. Dawit has been working professionally for the last four years but his inspiration started twelve years ago.
He was a 2008-2009 Artist-in-Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. He has exhibited his work in group shows throughout Canada and in the United States, including the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Wedge Curatorial Projects, Toronto; the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; Photographic Resource Centre, Boston; Massachusetts College of Art, Boston; Harbourfront Gallery, Toronto; Observatory 4, Montreal; Maison de la Culture Frontenac, Montréal; and Prefix Gallery, Toronto.
By Staff Reporter
Whenever a photo studio is opened, the most shared idea among Addis Ababans is a fancy place dedicated to wedding and birthday pictures or a place where you can get your ID card or resume picture taken. Not at Binyam Mengesha, one of Ethiopia’s few professional photographers studio. “I just want to challenge that firmly held believe,” he says.
Last Thursday, the man who won the International Science Photo Award opened a photo studio in Addis with various young artists and visitors in attendance. Named Glamour Image Gallery and Studio, Binyam has displayed 68 pictures of various types of photographs, including his award winning picture entitled Eye Cataract.
The other photos include journalistic reportages, fashion, but most of the viewer’s eye prevails at artistic or partial nude pictures. In 2008, the photographer has tried to showcase his nude pictures at the Abesha Art Gallery, but was prohibited by the Tourism and Culture Ministry stating that it’s against the country’s culture and ethics. But this time, he sticks to the art of “half nude pictures”.
After visiting the studio, designed and constructed with wooden products, artist Zeritu Kebede expressed her satisfaction saying: “This really is a very attractive studio”. “Keep up the good work,” she told the photographer whose intention is to open Glamour Studio to attract youth to the photography business. “My intention is to transfer the art of photography to others and only then, I would be happy,” he said.
Centre for Research and Archive in Photography (CRAF) Awards Ethiopian photographer
By Frehiwot Tsige Shiferaw
An unprecedented event took place in Pordenone, Italy on July 24th. For its 15th edition the Centre for Research and Archive in Photography (CRAF) gave away for the first time its coveted International Award in Photography to an African photographer.
Award winner Aida Muluneh, 36, an Ethiopian, became the first African photographer to receive the award. In her exhibition “Glimpses of Africa” CRAF thought that she was the best at showing a modern Africa in transition.
Despite her young age and teenage looks, Aida Muluneh has a huge amount of experience in photography and has an eye for seeing detail even in what may seem ordinary to most. She looks through the camera’s lens as a woman, an immigrant and a minority member.
In an interview with Frehiwot Tsigue Shiferaw, she tells more about her work and her interest in photography. As the organisers were sifting through the photographers that have contributed to the development of photography in Africa, Aida’s name surfaced among many others. “My goal has always been to balance the image of Ethiopia with Africa.”
“When they told me that I was to receive the award, at first I thought I was simply being nominated, because I was nominated in the past. But they said no, you have actually won the award!” Aida reminisced in her glorious moment. Aida thinks that the South African World Cup has had a lot to do with the emerging of a sudden interest in Africa.
The photographer loves to capture people as her subjects, as opposed to objects. She says she loves “capturing people with dignity and life.” As an individual who is struggling to bring out the hidden layer of Ethiopia, Aida is not much keen on the blame game. She says that it is for the generation with the right technology to help bring the necessary change to the tarnished scenes in her images.
“There are lots of books about Ethiopia but not many coffee table books. I have a book which was published in 2009 in Belgium titled Ethiopia Past, Forward. My main objective was to show people how Ethiopians look,” Aida added.
“The many images that have been shot by foreign photographers do not quite reflect the different multilayer of Ethiopia. All we are used to seeing, I can tell you as someone who grew up outside, is famine, war, political strife. But the stories that I grew up hearing contradicted this.”
Growing up in Canada, Aida says that she was ashamed of calling herself Ethiopian. She admits that at the beginning of her teens there were times where she used to wish that she was South African. Photography has been one of her outlets.
Aida believes that if the government and people were keen to bring out the full image of Ethiopia, the country would be associated with its true identity. She supports her claim, saying: “Just as the images of Paris are associated with the Eiffel Tower, so Ethiopia could also have its good sides shown.”
She does however say that showing the ancient images of Ethiopia might not be the only way to achieve this. “You cannot be showing the pictures of Axsum and Lalibela and talk only about conservation. We have to show the contemporary reality, not only in Ethiopia but all over Africa. We have to show the world that we are also moving.”
Aida directs her attention as a photographer in particular towards the women of the African diasporas, concentrating on the bonds as well as the differences between the generations, and the joys and the pains of life. Her images transmit with a mixture of power and grace, the vicissitudes related to the phenomenon of the dispersion of the African people. Perhaps this is what made the CRAF dedicate its international award of photography to the Ethiopian photographer.
Aida Muluneh is committed to the creation of a school of photography, dedicated to young people in Addis Ababa and her efforts in this field have contributed in her rise to prominence among of the many young, emerging African photographers.
Aida, 36, was born in Addis Ababa and brought up in Yemen and England. After several years at a boarding school in Cyprus, she settled in Canada in her teens. In 2001 she received a BA in Film, Radio and Television from Howard University, Washington DC. Falling in love with the art of photography right after graduation, she started freelancing for the Washington Post.
The photographer says that being in a competitive working atmosphere has made her excel: “I was 26-27 and they just gave me small assignments. I used to go to small towns to document the most ridiculous things. But it was a learning experience.”
“I had editors that were telling me ‘you are not a photographer; you don’t deserve to be here.’ It was complete abuse. But after a while I started telling stories through pictures.”
After two years of work Aida thought that photojournalism was not her thing as she thought that it was too limiting. She says photojournalism is not her calling, but the field still needs to develop in Ethiopia. She points out the lack of attention saying: “There is a journalism school but no photojournalism institute; there is an irony to that.”
A few years ago Aida founded an organisation whose aim is to increase the opportunities for African artists. Her photos have been on display in many important international exhibitions. In 2007 she won an award at the International Arts Festival in Bamako (Mali).
Coming back to Ethiopia in 2007, she is still trying to set up a photography department at university level. So far she has started teaching 13 students from which she cut the number down to five. Meanwhile she is currently running the Gebre Kristos Desta Museum of Modern Art in Addis Ababa.
Aida has dedicated two and a half years of her life to teach her five students as well as taking them with her to Berlin on an exchange program in which the students had their work exhibited in Berlin and later in Addis. Her efforts in giving a chance to Ethiopian photographers will surely pay off soon.
Aida participated in the innovative display Ethiopian Passages: Dialogues in the Diaspora at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art. She is currently working on the photographic exhibition “Images of Havana”, a documentary depicting Ethiopian children sent to Cuba in the late 1970s. Aida began the project in 2005. Her works have also been exhibited at the National Museum of African Art in Washington DC.
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