June 12th, Tarifa, Spain – Photographers from South Africa and Kenya won prestigious awards at fourth Photoafrica contest, which took place within 8th African Film Festival of Tarifa. The first place award, endowed with €1,500, went to Jessica MacLeod from South Africa for her photograph titled “You see a shack, I see my house”. The second place award, endowed with €1,000, went to James Muriuki from Kenya for the photograph titled “44”. Third place, endowed with €500, went to Mimi Cherono from Kenya with the photograph titled “Khusi and the Giraffes”.
“It was incredibly difficult to decide about winners, as the fourth edition of Photoafrica experienced a record number of over 400 entries and once again proved the unique potential and quality of African photographers”, says Pablo Juliá, chairman of the jury and director of the Andalusian Center Of Photography.
James Muriuki
The unique potential of current African photography was confirmed by Gaetano Gualdo, coordinator of 8th African Film Festival of Tarifa: “This year for the first time ever [we got participation from] photographers from countries like Madagascar, Namibia or Lesotho. South Africa had 23 entries, of which 16 made it to final, and one of them, Jessica MacLeod, won the 1st prize,” he said.
The topic of this year’s Photoafrica was the “Urban Space” of African cities seen through the photographers’ eyes. There were 25 photographers from 11 African countries competing with their works in the final round of this year’s Photoafrica contest. The exhibition of 27 large-format photographs from this year’s final was inaugurated and is installed outdoors in Tarifa. At the end of the festival it will tour for a whole year through Spanish and African cities.
Jessica MacLeod
The African Film Festival of Tarifa (FCAT – Festival de Cine Africano de Tarifa) is an independent and competitive film festival and one of the biggest African film festivals in Europe. The FCAT celebrates its eighth year from June 11th-19th in the Andalusian town of Tarifa – the closest town on continental Europe to the African continent – the two continents are in fact only 14 km apart from one another in this geographical area.
This year FCAT will screen over one hundred African films and it will bring together some of the most distinguished African filmmakers. Its aim is to spread knowledge about African film production by exhibiting a representative wide variety of audiovisual African works–from the classics to more innovative and recent films; from documentaries to feature length fiction films; from South Africa to Morocco; and from Senegal to Ethiopia.
Mimi Cherono
25 photographers who competed in the 4th Photoafrica:
● Abdelmohcine Nakari, Morocco
● Aboubacar Traore, Mali
● Adolphus Opara, Nigeria
● Djibril Drame, Senegal
● Georges Senga, Democratic Republic of Congo
● James Muriuki, Kenya
● Hlompho Letsielo, Lesotho
● Resta Nyamwanza, Zimbabwe
● Mário Macilau, Mozambique
● Marwen Trabelsi, Tunisia
● Mimi Cherono Ng’ok, Kenya
● Noncedo Charmaine Mathibela, South Africa
● Roanne Sutcliffe, South Africa
● Anthony Purnell, South Africa
● Bianca Kerstein Vinay, South Africa
● Cendyl Charlton, South Africa
● Chandre Busschau, South Africa
● Costas Christodoulou, South Africa
● David Kutlwano Moagi, South Africa
● Davina Gokool, South Africa
● Hayden Brawn, South Africa
● Ihsaan Haffejee, South Africa
● Jessica MacLeod, South Africa
● Kristi Bailey, South Africa
● Mack Magagane, South Africa
