Chanda Mwenya talk - Photographing for State Owned Newspapers

Today's guest talk was by Chanda Mwenya. He gave us an insight into his well-established career as a photojournalist at the Zambian state-owned Daily Mail newspaper. He also showed his personal work. 

Chanda discussed the restrictions Zambian photojournalists are guided by when working for the state-owned press. These restrictions are often there to put the leading figures of government in the best light and don't allow critical reflections on the current administrations.

He also showed a number of images that he categorised as 'art' photographs, as they were shot with the sensitivity he had developed during his fine art degree. While they followed the photo-journalistic tradition, they were not aimed for publication in the state press.

Chanda Mwenya was trained at the Oslo Academy of Fine Arts in Norway. Until recently Chanda worked with Zambia Daily Mail. He now runs an Artist Residency in Matero and works as a freelance writer, photojournalist and artist.

Reflection by workshop participant 
Muchemwa Sichone:

To be honest, this workshop is really making me feel more active and alert, I feel more alive and I feel like am contributing a lot towards making it a success, am happy and I feel like all the people that are taking part are family, everybody is free and friendly, the challenging questions and topics that arise really get us all connected, am more free and awake whenever I get to the gallery, trust me, I now feel like am just doing 5% of photography, I should at least get to 25%.

Kalingalinga has made me a more social person, this project has just the best tools to ignite art and photography of everyday life, I am a proud photographer soon to be an everyday a
rtist of my own satisfaction.

Thank you VAC. 



Photography and video by Natalia González Acosta