The British Council in West Africa have awarded us a significant grant for the Fast Forward emerging women photographer’s mentorship programme. We launched the project in collaboration with LagosPhoto in Nigeria at our 5^th Fast Forward research workshop in the last week of October 2018. The Fast Forward research workshops have been funded by an International Network Award from the Leverhulme Trust and the first four workshops took place in Brazil, The US, India and Finland.

The mentorship programme in West Africa will focus on emerging women photographers from Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Senegal, Sierre Leone and the UK. The mentors for the programme includes academics and photographers working alongside international curators from Fast Forward, Tate Modern and Centre Pompidou.

The programme will include: attending the two-day Fast Forward research workshop on women photographers at LagosPhoto, with opportunities to present work and network with international figures from the photography world; portfolio reviews at LagosPhoto; ongoing mentorship with the mentors over the next 12 months and finally a public presentation of the mentees work at LagosPhoto 2019. The mentees will gain new insights into their working practice as well as being introduced to an international network of photographers and curators. Their final works will also be featured in the Fast Forward online gallery.

The selected mentees for the project are:

From Cameroon

Charlotte Yonga  https://charlotteyonga.com/

From Nigeria

Nneka Iwunna-Ezemezue nnekaiwunna.com

Eitnosa Osayimwen www.etinosayvonne.me

From Ghana

Josephine Ngminvielu Kuuire okuuire.tumblr.com

From the UK

Amanda Whittle amanda-whittle.format.com

Heather Agyepong www.heatheragyepong.com

From Sierre Leone

Ngada Smart www.ngadismart.com

Sierra Nallo: www.sierranallo.com

From Senegal

Malika Diagana www.linguereart.com

The mentors are: Emma Lewis (Tate Modern); Alicia Knock (Centre Pompidou); Anna Fox and Karen Knorr (University for the Creative Arts); Susan Collins (SLADE School of Fine Art) and Patricia Azevedo (Festival Internacional de Fotofrafia de Belo Horizonte and Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais).