There are just a few days left for photographers and videographers to apply for one of four Lampost Luminaries fellowships aimed at supporting previously disadvantaged womxn and the LGBTI community in making their mark on visual storytelling. The Lampost Luminaries initiative gets underway in February 2020 when four womxn starts a fully-funded 10-month, full-time, up-skilling programme based in Johannesburg.
“As a group of women with over three decades of experience in the photographic, fashion and advertising industry, we want to uplift other creative womxn, share our knowledge, mentor and award well-deserving womxn an opportunity to influence culture and change the visual storytelling world,” comments Jodie Ennik.
The founder of photographic production and creative management companies, Lampost and Lustre, Ennik has established Lampost Luminaries with well-known industry Creative Director Kassie Naidoo and Nandi Dlepu, a highly regarded creative known for her work in womxn advocacy. “It’s no surprise that there is a real imbalance within our visual storytelling culture when it comes to African womxn photographers and videographers,” says Naidoo.
“Our Lampost Luminaries initiative aims to play its part in redressing that by providing four fellowships that can play a meaningful role in the development of commercial, fashion and fine art womxn photographers.” “There is a huge deficit of womxn working as photographers and videographers in general and even more so those who come from previously disadvantaged backgrounds and who represent the LGBTI community,” adds Dlepu. “This makes a programme like Lampost Luminaries so important because it provides a much-needed pipeline to be able to change this picture.”
The Lampost Luminaries fellowships are open to previously disadvantaged womxn who are South African citizens between the age of 18 and 50. In 2021, we are hoping to extend the fellowship beyond South Africa, into the African continent. In its aim to up-skill, the next wave of successful womxn photographers capable of working on big campaigns in fashion editorial and advertising, fine art, short films and art exhibitions those chosen for the Lampost Luminaries fellowship will follow an intense programme.
This starts with three months of on-the-job training – including taking part in actual commercial shoots with established photographers and videographers who will mentor the fellows. Five months will be spent on intensive skills development – technical, business and creative – with the final two months taking the form of an internship at an advertising agency, publishing house or Lampost Productions.
“We are looking for focused, passionate photographers and videographers who want to be the best in the field,” concludes Ennik. “This is an immersive, mentored fellowship for young African womxn and we look forward to working with our fellows in 2020 and getting the Lampost Luminaries fellowship underway.” Previous training is an advantage but not required for applicants. However, the fellowship is fulltime so is not suitable for those who will be studying in 2020. Although open to all South Africans, the fellowship is based in Johannesburg, Gauteng.
For general application inquiries:
info@lampostluminaries.org
+27 11 788 2609