The femLENS exhibition is happening this weekend 11 June, 2017 at the Gdynia Wzgórze Św. Maksymiliana underground crossing. We are very excited and think it’s going be a great event. Spread the word and join us if you can. Event page of Facebook.
PRESS RELEASE:
Transcending disabilities through documentary photography
* The unseen life of people with disabilities living in Gdynia, and the life of Gdynians, as seen through their own lens
* a documentary photography exhibition at the Gdynia Wzgórze Św. Maksymiliana underground crossing
(08/06/2017, Gdynia, Poland) ‘Transcending obstacles’ is a documentary photography exhibition that results from a series of photography workshops organised by femLENS in Gdynia, for women with physical disabilities. The project showcases the intimate and veiled life of physically disabled people in Gdynia, through their own perspective. The project presents the work of two women living and working in Gdynia: Ewa Drewa and Magdalena Kostrzewska.
“femLENS’ mission is to visually educate and make technologically aware women in our society through the medium of documentary photography. We aim to empower women by teaching them to use visual storytelling to document their lives within society through easily available tools such as mobile phone cameras, point and shoot cameras, and other inexpensive alternatives. “This allows an intimate and powerful insight into worlds other people might not often experience, or be aware of,” says Jekaterina Savelieva, founder of the femLENS project and the course instructor.
The latest series of workshops focused on women with disabilities and were organized in partnership with the Center for Youth Co-operation and Mobility (Centrum Współpracy Młodzieży), The Gdynia Public Library(Biblioteka Gdynia), Reuters Pictures and Thomson Reuters Poland.
For over one month, the participants learned the basics of documentary photography, looked at iconic work of documentary photographers, and had the occasion to meet and interact with photojournalists and editors working at Reuters Pictures in Gdynia.
The organisers thought that one of the most iconic places symbolising mobility in Gdynia is the Gdynia Wzgórze Św. Maksymiliana underground crossing, where every day hundreds of people commute to work or their homes.
“It is also a statement to challenge the conventions of exhibiting art and photography in galleries. We want to grant as much exposure to the work done by Ewa and Magda, to give everyone the opportunity to see the life of people with disabilities, in a new way. The participants have challenged and transcended personal and societal obstacles, they took photos that are both personal and intimate, and are also just a gaze of a woman at life happening around her”, said the organisers. Join us on Sunday 11/06/2017 (13:00, Gdynia Wzgórze św. Maksymiliana underground crossing) to explore this work, meet the photographers and experience viewing documentary photography outside of a book or a photo gallery.
BACKGROUND INFO
The femLENS project initially started with a series of workshops in 2015 in Dublin, Ireland. In Poland, workshops began in Gydnia in December 2016 in partnership with the Gdynia Public Library (Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna w Gdyni).
The femLENS team currently consists of Jekaterina Saveljeva (founder and workshop coordinator), Bogdan Popescu (project manager), Tacjanna Dziuban (communications officer and legal aid) and Evangelo Sipsas (video producer). The project was also showcased at TedX Lasnamäe (Invisible Women in Documentary Photography)
E-mail: femlensphoto@gmail.com
Website: femlens.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/femlens/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/femlens/