I am planning a workshop that will take place on March 7th in Kigali to help artists with their submissions for the Bamako Biennale. Before the workshop, I am meeting individually with artists, photographers, and filmmakers to go over the application requirements, help them with the written components, and discuss the project (related to the Biennale’s theme of “telling time”) that they are thinking of submitting.
I am including several samples of photo stories that represent the creation of a narrative.
Artists, photographers, and filmmakers in Rwanda: I hope you will look at these projects by other photographers and artists for inspiration when developing your own photo stories. When creating your story, think about the subject of your work. What is your project about? Then ask yourself, “why is this interesting?” Say to yourself, or better yet WRITE DOWN, the following: “I am creating/photographing/filming a story on ____ and this is interesting because ________.” Continue to challenge your reason WHY this is interesting and important until you come up with reason that will compel viewers to care about your project.
For those of you who are applying to the Bamako Biennale, your work will in some way relate to the exhibition’s theme of “Telling Time.” I hope that you will look to these stories so that you can better understand how to show a narrative through images and to then document that narrative in a (short) statement/critical text.
Many thanks to my photographer friend and fellow workshop organizer Crystalline Randazzo for her help gathering these stories and for sharing them with me. Check out Crystal’s Website to see her work and her Pinterest Board to see her inspirations.
Please click on the following links to see the images that make up these photo stories and artistic films and be sure to read the provided statements that explain the narratives.
1. Ingetje Tadros, The Hill

Photojournalist Ingetje Tadros spent more than six months in Kennedy Hill, a remote Aboriginal community in Western Australia, documenting the lives of its residents.
2. Slicing Time on Vimeo
3. Snooze Time on Vimeo
4. Time Warp Project on Vimeo
5. NORWAY – A Time-Lapse Adventure on Vimeo
This is a time-lapse video resulting from a 15,000 km (almost 10,000 miles) long road trip and tens of thousands of images taken along the way over the last 5 months. The journey has covered all of Norway’s 19 counties, from the far south to the Russian border in the Northeast.
6. Laura Elizabeth Pohl, Malawian Chili Farmers Find Strength in Numbers
7. Kitra Cahana, Still Man

“My father, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana had a brain stem stroke that left him locked-in, a mind trapped in a body. Since then he has regained his ability to breathe, to have slight movement of his limbs and the ability to speak with a waning voice. I focused my camera as he began regaining body, slowly coming back to life at the age of 57 also trying to find a visual language to express the spirituality of his experience.”
8. Maggie Steber, Madje Has Dementia

9. Stephanie Sinclair, Too Young To Wed

10. Amy Toensing, Behind the Veil

11. Diana Markosian, Inventing My Father
