"Lideresas en África"

In memoriam Paloma Sánchez, our "Alberta Einstein"

“Lideresas en África/ Female Leaders in Africa” will be the first international experience of my photographic project "Lideresas". After having made the original series in Madrid with the very great Lideresas de Villaverde, and continuing a year later the experience with young students from 3 educational centers and two centers for the elderly in Galicia, it is time to take a leap and take it beyond our borders.

“Lideresas” is a photographic project that talks about the enormous inequality between men and women, especially in positions of responsibility and leadership. This imbalance becomes even more evident with age, with older women, especially those over 65 years of age, being the most affected. Although they continue to play an essential role in supporting families, taking care of grandchildren, partners and other elderly people, however, for society, they are invisible.

This project aims to look back at them. To do this, we have recreated and inverted iconic or highly recognizable photographs showing male leaders, in any area of society (politics, science, arts, religion ...).

By inverting the images, the new protagonists are “Las Lideresas de Villaverde”, a group of older women from a working-class neighborhood in Madrid, who together develop activities that seek to give women a voice and light in society. Among their many activities, to highlight their radio program "Con Mayor Voz", in OMC Radio. They also participate in conferences, workshops, TV magazines, etc, becoming indisputable references for older women, and for all, an example to follow.

The original series, made during 2018 and 2019 in Madrid with this group of women, consists of 14 photographs and intends to be expanded through new experiences with other groups of older women of any condition and place, - this problem affects us all-, such as the one I carried out at the beginning of 2020 in Galicia, where a group of about 20 older women have participated in a series of collaborative photographic workshops that involved three educational centers and about one hundred young students.

These are the series' photographs that will be part of the campaign rewards:

Este es el vídeo del "making of" de la serie.

“Lideresas en África”

Given that the problem posed by the project affects any woman and anywhere, while I continue showing the project at the national level (presenting it to calls and city councils) I think it´s important to internationalize the project to reinforce its universality. I want Africa to be the first stop, talking specifically about a town from The Gambia: Tujereng.

I will collaborating there with Fandema, an association whose mission is to accompany, strengthen and empower the development actions of vulnerable communities and groups of The Gambia and Senegal, betting on sustainable development strategies, gender equality, citizen participation and co-development.

The association educates local women who receive training in professions traditionally associated with men, where they have an audiovisual training module.

My collaboration agreement with this association consists in this: while I make with local women a new batch of photographs of the "Lideresas" project, using its facilities and its social community, I will also develop a didactic work in photographic and audiovisual training with the students of the center. I am especially interested in working with students who learn to be renewable energy installers and those who are trained in audiovisuals.

The estimated duration of my stay will be 6 to 8 weeks, predictably during 2021, although it is not ruled out having to postpone my trip until the first months of 2022, depending on the evolution of the current pandemic and the agendas from both sides.

This crowdfunding campaign will cover the expenses associated with this stay in the Gambia, and at no time will the funds obtained be used for the acquisition of material or for covering expenses of the association, Fandema. The exchange with them will take place only through professional work, contributing with my knowledge and experience as a teacher, in exchange for their availability, the use of their facilities and equipment and their welcome during my stay there.

The result would be a new group of photographs that would be added to the series and an audiovisual workshop that I will develop in Africa with the students.

As for the rewards, as they are not linked to the experience in Africa but to the series already produced, they will be produced and shipped immediately, as the campaign ends.

Who am I

Ana Amado, architect, photographer and visual artist.

I am experienced in self-produced personal projects in which I show realities that are out of focus, like the one shown in this project, "Lideresas". At the moment, the series has been the winner of relevant awards (Festival de Fotografía de Granada, Premio “IDE: Identity, Dialogue, Europe” (European Commission), Festival de Barbastro, Copenhaguen Photography Festival y Savignano SiFest Photo Festival (Italia), obtaining some impact in national and international media. In its second edition, 3 Galician schools organized themselves to carry out new photographic sessions of the project, this time with women from Ferrol and students from the centers, bringing young people closer to the lives of older women and viceversa, while we all learned photography.

Other projects I did in this line are "Bailamos bajo la lluvia", on young people with Down Syndrome (finalist in the Sony Awards) “Spanish Dream”,which was part of the Spanish Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale, winner of the Golden Lion, or “Habitar el agua” on the colonization program in Spain in the 20th century, which was formalized in a book promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture and edited by Turner.

More information in my web, My Facebook profile or Instagram

Destination of your contributions

The budget will be used to cover my travel expenses from Madrid to The Gambia, internal transport in Gambia, accommodation and meals for 6 weeks (extendable to 8 weeks), visa and other derivatives of possible COVID restrictions ( serological tests, etc).

I will also reserve a part for post-production assistant fees of the audiovisual work that I will do with the African students (editing, color grading, audio editing, etc ...)

Schedule

The start of the campaign will take place on March 8, The International Women's Day. If the financing objective is achieved, at the end of April the production of the rewards would begin, so they would be sent to patrons throughout the month of May.

The trip to the Gambia will take place within one year, probably before December 2021.

+ Info

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For more information about the project and about me: [email protected]