Growing sense of perspective

Mango from the EthiopiaLives project with some of his work [Annie Bungeroth]

The success of the EthiopiaLives online photography project has been showcased in an exhibition travelling around Ethiopia, attended by hundreds of people

by Louise Norton

It was an immensely proud moment for 19-year old Freweini. Her family were the first guests to arrive at the premiere of the Ethiopialives.net photographic exhibition in Mekele, northern Ethiopia.

They had travelled a long distance from their village, Driglet, which is 50km from Mekele and a four-hour walk just to reach the main road from their house. But there was no way they were going to miss this night.

They had watched their daughter’s first artistic steps into the field of photography when she joined CAFOD’s Ethiopialives.net project a year ago. Now, her work, and that of the other 18 Ethiopialives photographers, was being shown at a packed out exhibition.

There was a real buzz of excitement in the room as more guests arrived. Mango (18), a former street child, stood in front of his pictures and had his photograph taken with his grandmother and little cousin. A local photographic businessman enthused about the fresh vibrancy of their photographs.

Growing in style and confidence

For me, it was amazing to finally travel to Ethiopia and meet the people whose personal lives I had seen unfolding on the photographer’s blog website over the last year.

In my role as picture editor, part of my work is to commission photographers to take pictures of CAFOD’s work abroad. The Ethiopialives.net project was CAFOD’s first foray into promoting local photographers by firstly training them in the technical and artistic aspects of photography. I have watched them grow in style and confidence as the web blog has grown in popularity.

Ethiopia was chosen to be the focus of this new project as we felt the country represented all the stereotypical images of Africa - that of famine and drought.

The photographers have offered us an intimate insight into their lives and given people around the world another view of Ethiopia – one that shows the harshness of life but also the colour, the richness of culture, the joys and hopes of the people and the strength of communities and families.

Borbor (left) and Karayour getting to grips with their new cameras [CAFOD]

Setting up a business

I regularly read the comments from people as far afield as Australia to Bolivia, whose perceptions have been changed by the website and who want to share their thoughts with the photographers on the web blog ethiopialives.net.

The photographers have made this project an overwhelming success and to meet them was humbling.

I then travelled with the exhibition to the capital Addis Ababa, where the six photographers are making a name for themselves and a business.

Beti (19) has been taking engagement and christening photographs while Ashe, another 19-year-old photographer in Addis has won a commission to take photographs of the Great Ethiopia Run taking place in October.

He told me: “Ethiopialives has given me an opportunity. I now have a digital camera. It’s hard to make a living so my aim is to set up a business. Being asked to take photos of the Great Ethiopia Run is my greatest achievement so far.”

And then it was onto another premiere - the first ever photographic exhibition in the Borana region in southern Ethiopia. It was held at the field office of CAFOD partners Action for Development in Dirre near the town of Yabello.

The photographers had two photographs each in the group show and all of them delighted in telling the guests their stories behind the shots, their initial hesitations about getting involved in the project and how it had come to change their lives and given them exciting new opportunities for the future.

The most poignant moment for me came when one of the photographers Workneh, the co-ordinator of the Yabello group, said: “Thank you for thinking the unthinkable.”

A vast landscape

One of the things that really struck me about Ethiopia was the distance. The two-day drive from Addis to Dirre, the 12-hour walk 20-year-old photographer Karayu makes once a week to the Dirre office to re-charge his camera batteries.

It’s incredible to think that 19 photographers stretched across the length of Ethiopia are taking photographs of their own lives and sharing them with each other and thousands of people all around the world.

Dama (38), a Borana pastoralist and shopkeeper from Dirre region, explained the importance of photography to all the photographers in Yabello and how they are using it to show people the problems they face.

Their region is now suffering severe drought and Dama spoke of the effect this is having on communities and the worry she feels. Her photographs are being used by CAFOD to illustrate the current drought situation in the region.

I feel that this is the secret of the success of the project and of the power of the photographic project. Real people expressing their personal experiences, hopes and fears and being able to share this with the world.

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