To fortify the foundation of photojournalism, the program will impart students with necessary practical tools for production of single pictures and short photo essays suitable for publication in an editorial and digital context.

Canon Central and North Africa (CCNA) announced today its partnership with VII Academy to launch its collaborative twelve-week course on Documentary and Photojournalism photography. Falling under the umbrella of Canon’s Miraisha programme (https://bit.ly/3HGzRAh), the twelve-week course is designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of composition and camera control, simple narrative storytelling, as well as basic business and freelancing skills, all set within an ethical and practical framework for photojournalism. The three-month program will entail lectures on photojournalistic concepts, group tutorials, assignments, and feedback sessions in order to develop the student’s ability to work in an editorial and digital context on single pictures and short photo essays.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with VII Academy to bring forth an interactive, engaging and educational coursework on Documentary and Photojournalism photography for the African youth. The Miraisha program was carefully designed in order to provide relevant opportunities to young Africans across our continent as well as to equip them with proper tools and training needed to carve out a professional path ahead in life. Through all our Miraisha offerings, our goal remains the same – to empower African talents, promote job opportunities and future livelihoods. At Canon, we believe it is imperative to nurture and nourish passionate talents through initiatives that focus on honing their skills. As part of this twelve-week program, we aspire to instill students with suitable skills from fundamentals of photography such as the shooting of single pictures to advanced levels such as the production of a short journalistically driven photo essay. Over the weeks, students will gradually progress from how to control the camera to visual style and composition to financing and budgeting finally culminating into an exhibition of the student work,” remarked Amine Djouahra - Sales and Marketing Director at Canon Central and North Africa.

Spread across three months, the program will cover lectures on relevant concepts in Documentary and Photojournalism photography as well as a group tutorial every week thus ensuring students are well prepared for their assignments. The workshops will be led by world renowned VII Agency photographers Nichole Sobecki and Stefano De Luigi. Nichole Sobecki, has lived in Nairobi for the past decade, the primary focus of Nichole’s work is on humanity’s fraught, intimate, and ultimately unbreakable connection to the natural world. She is currently exploring the vital role the Congo Basin plays in the ecological balance of our planet as a National Geographic Explorer.  Stefano De Luigi currently lives in Paris and started his career working for the Grand Louvre Museum as a photographer from 1989 to 1996. His numerous awards include four World Press Photo awards (1998, 2007, 2010, 2011), the Eugene Smith fellowship grant (2008), and the Getty Grant for editorial photography just to name a few.

The initial weeks are tightly structured with regular assignments and feedback sessions for the students to develop an editorial and digital based approach for their photography assignments. These first few weeks of the course will introduce basic concepts of photojournalism to students as well as explore professional practice elements such as personal branding, portfolio presentation, social media management as well as cover technical camera aspects including aperture, depth of field, shutter-speed, lenses, ISO and composition and aesthetics. The mid-weeks of the program will be catered towards assignments ranging from landscape shots to street photography to portrait and sports in order for the students to understand and develop a logical workflow for their production, including captioning, image manipulation, archiving and backing up of their work. The course will conclude with two sessions on professional practice introducing the basics of freelancing, covering financial planning, budgeting, proposal writing, personal branding and business development. Thus, the program is well-rounded to provide a crash-course on Documentary and Photojournalism photography to students that are interested in pursuing the editorial and digital path.