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This time last year, Black Women Photographers (BWP) was busy launching a global community and database to help Black women get paid for their work. One year later, the platform is celebrating its anniversary with a new fund that’s continuing that mission. Over the last year, founder Polly Irungu has been a vocal advocate encouraging companies to invest in and hire Black women photographers for various projects through her ever-growing digital database. The movement she started disrupted industries in a way that finally made the world wake up to this overlooked group of creatives, but now its revolutionary nature is taking it a step further with a $40,000 grant fund — in partnership with NikonUSA — and an additional $10,000 worth of photography gear. According to Irungu, there will also be an additional $1,250 grant opportunity from Flickr who is also partnering with BWP. “One year ago today, we launched this global community and directory. ? ,” the platform announced on its...
The NFT (non-fungible token) boom over the last few weeks has taken over the cryptocurrency game for artists around the world, and now Black women are leading the charge to elevate the space just for them. Photographers Lauren Washington and Diana Sinclair — both associated with digital database Black Women Photographers (BWP) — have been integral players in ushering more Black women into the NFT space through online discussions on Clubhouse, Twitter and an onboarding process onto cryptocurrency platform, Foundation. According to Sinclair, Washington — who also specializes in film, screenwriting and directing — was the first Black woman photographer to join the platform with intentions of innovating the space for artists and women who look just like her. “I knew about crypto and investing because a friend of mine (Darrian Aldridge, a Black digital asset investor) who runs The Crypto Clubhouse room,” she tells AfroTech. “So I was learning about what that all means and what blockchain...
In today’s world, there are very few spaces for Black women creatives to gather, network, and explore our talents. Without strong support systems and a proper spotlight, Black women creatives continue to struggle to find opportunities in our career field. However, Polly Irungu — multimedia journalist, self-taught photographer, and founder of Black Women Photographers — is striving to amplify Black women’s creative work and disrupt industries to change common, obsolete hiring practices. “I’m not trying to be a movement, but I do want to help connect the dots,” she said. Irungu — who grew up in a traditional African household in Kansas and later in Oregon — has always had a creative spirit but found it difficult to find communities for Black women who had a passion for photography. After attending the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention, she discovered the organization had a large close-knit community of Black writers and creatives, and so she came up with the idea...
Have you ever dreamed of starting a photography business? Well, if you’re waiting for the “perfect” time, understand that there’s no time better to start than today. You can earn part-time or even full-time income if you’re a skilled professional. However, no matter how talented you are at your craft, you’ll need to take the following steps to be successful. Draft a Business Plan Dedicate time to writing a plan for your business. There are plenty of business templates available online that you can use as a guide, some simple and some complex. At a minimum, yours should include what your niche is, what your sales and marketing strategies are, who your target consumers are, and how you’ll set yourself apart from competitors. You’ll also want to determine both startup and ongoing costs, outline how you intend to finance your startup costs and decide how you’ll price and package your photos to make a profit. Secure Startup Funding The good news is that you can start your photography...