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Ghanaian photographer and visual storyteller Nipah Dennis joins the 2021 Visura Mentorship Program
the visura media blog
Feb 11, 2021
The mentorship began in the fall of 2020, during which time Nipah met with Visura founder Adriana Teresa Letorney to receive guidance and support around ways to better manage his online presence. From January to June 2020, Nipah will receive mentorship from Sarah Leen—editor, educator, curator, and founder of The Visual Thinking Collective. The focus of the mentorship is to support the photographer in reaching their goals, to share ideas, assist in editing their work, give feedback and determine what are the next steps toward finding publishing platforms for their project.
"I am honored to be part of the Visura mentorship program. I am very excited to be mentored by two women leaders in the industry. Joining Visura has given me access to new opportunities, perspectives, and resources to further my work and vision as a visual storyteller. I look forward to learning and growing through the mentorship. My hope is that my visual work on life in Ghana can reach international audiences and contribute to new perspectives about who we are, and how we live."—Nipah Dennis"—Nipah Dennis / based in Accra, Ghana
[Credit: Nipah Dennis]
About Sarah Leen /Founder/Editor the Visual Thinking Collective
In 2013, Sarah Leen became the first female Director of Photography at the National Geographic Partners leaving in 2019 to launch the Visual Thinking Collective (www.visualthinkingcollective.com) for independent women visual professionals who elevate the photo community through editing, teaching, curating and project management.
For nearly 20 years Leen worked as a freelance photographer for the National Geographic magazine until 2004 when she joined the magazine staff as a Senior Photo Editor. As a photographer, Leen published sixteen stories and produced six covers for the National Geographic magazine.
She has juried numerous contests and participated in portfolio reviews for Pictures of the Year International, Lens Culture, Critical Mass, Photo Lucida, ASMP, The FotoEvidence Book Award, the Carmignac Photojournalism Award, the W. Eugene Smith Grant, the Getty Images Editorial Grants, the New York Times Portfolio Reviews, PhotoNola, the ASMP and the World Press Joop Swarts Masterclass.
She is on the Board of the International League of Conservation Photographers and on the Advisory Council for the Eddie Adams Workshop.
Leen works individually with photographers and agencies editing long-term projects and books including the America Again project by the VII Photo agency and the the2020 FotoEvidence World Press Photo Book Award winner book HABIBI by Antonio Faccilongo.
Leen believes in sharing her knowledge through mentoring and teaching photography and photo editing workshops at the Missouri Photo Workshops, the Maine Media Workshops, the Santa Fe Photo Workshops, the Eddie Adams Workshop and the PhotoLux Festival in Lucca, Italy.
About Nipah Dennis
Nipah Dennis (www.nipahdennis.com) is a Ghanaian documentary photographer and visual storyteller who is primarily focused on documenting daily life and events in Ghana. Based in Accra, Ghana—Nipah's work was recently included in the book "Encourage" produced by the Visa Pour L'image Canon Student Development Program.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM:
The Visura Mentorship Program is an educational opportunity for a Visura member to receive mentorship from Visura founders Adriana Teresa and or Graham Letorney and a key working professional leader in the industry, whose work is focused on an area of interest to the mentee. The goal of the program is to support the participant in furthering his, her, or them's career.
This opportunity is open to one or more aspiring professional(s) working in journalism, photography, film, art, tech, entrepreneurialism, and/or any new media role. In the past, this has been an invite-only opportunity. Visura will launch an open call for Visura members to apply to the Mentorship Program this fall. As of today, this has been an invite-only program while Visura Founder Adriana Teresa and Graham develop an effective solution that empowers its participants with a unique and valuable experience.
About Visura
Visura.co is a curated global marketplace that connects image buyers, newsrooms, media companies, and organizations with professional visual storytellers, creatives, and journalists worldwide.
Visura’s proprietary technology serves as a central platform that works to elevate media literacy by empowering individuals and organizations with tools and resources to manage their online presence, network, build community, and amplify their message. We value quality and diverse content and talent, over medium and format.
Our team works to identify the structural challenges to finding and accessing quality and diverse content and talent on the internet. We then build, and design technology that empowers content and talent, while fostering inclusivity, equity, sustainability, and professional skill development.