2023

Photos are powerful in that they inspire people to adopt different perspectives. By sharing their life experiences, women and girls become visual storytellers. Our work is to help them build a story by giving them tools to express their own vision, with which we hope to raise global awareness on social issues as well as diversify visual culture.

Blurb, March 2023: We See VI: Behind the Book with Jekaterina Saveljeva of femLENS

2022

femLENS also hosts exhibitions and publishes We See magazine (2018 to date) which provides an edited, public showcase of the work produced by workshop participants. These entries are varied, sometimes including an accompanying narrative which articulates the work—though often not—leading the viewer to explore the meaning and events being portrayed without accompanying text. This lends the magazine an inspiring, non-didactic air, and demonstrates confidence in the power of the image.

MAI Feminism, June 2022: TO SEE AND BE SEEN: WHAT CAN A WOMAN DO WITH A CAMERA (PHONE)?

Advocating for diversity in the media, bringing photography as a tool for change to communities and mentoring those who have not been heard or are without a platform, femLENS are providing a space for women around the world.
 

The Game, March 2022: Interview with femLENS

The exhibition is organised by photographers from femLENS, a volunteer-based nonprofit association that teaches documentary photography to women and girls from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds.

The Echo, February 2022: Photo stories exhibition at four local newsagents

2021

Together we brought a number of women from our communities together to take part in a photography and storytelling training programme facilitated by femLENS. Over a number of months, women from Donegal and Dublin learnt about photography techniques, editing and sequencing all using a mobile phone to capture and tell stories.

This lack of diversity worried me—who is showing us their perspective of the world? Why only them and where is everyone else? Others who have noticed this have started to act on this gap, but most of these projects are aimed at elevating existing women photographers, which is necessary for those women but doesn’t train more women nor address the lack of diversity in photography

Other examples of simple yet impactful means of innovating include the work of photojournalist Jekaterina Saveljeva in the creation of femLENS.
 
 
femLENS is doing some important work. In a world often defined by exclusivity and barriers to entry, they’re working to empower women to “become change agents” by teaching them the tools of visual storytelling.
 
A decade working in photojournalism around the world taught Jekaterina Saveljeva two things: Not enough photojournalism is done by locals, nor are there enough women working in the industry.
 
The Daily Start Lebanon, Nov. 2017: Photography helps Shatila women break boundaries
 
In Gdynia you will be able to see the exhibition “Women take pictures – Crossing Barriers”. Pictures will be available from June 11.