VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 15, 2020 /CNW/ - Room Up Front, a new mentorship program for early career Canadian BIPOC photojournalists has just been launched by a group of Canadian working professionals to help support early career photographers.
This initiative is intended to contribute to a media landscape that more fully represents the Canadians it serves. By helping talented aspiring journalists to succeed and reinvigorate the industry that supports us all with critical perspectives and relevance to under-represented communities.
The goal is to equip mentees with concrete skills to allow them to contribute to newspapers, magazines, wires, NGO's, their own communities and the larger documentary practice.
"Photojournalists have always worked up front and on the ground. We don't have the luxury of working from home or over a video chat. And many of the important stories centre around marginalized communities. It's about time that these communities are met with someone from shared experiences and understanding. We need to do away with parachute journalism." said Jimmy Jeong, Founder of Room Up Front.
Ryan McLeod, Vice-President of the News Photographers Association of Canada (NPAC) adds "It's exciting to see Room Up Front launching their mentorship program. Canada needs a strong and diverse community providing the record of the day for today and for all times leading forward. Room Up Front is a positive step in the right direction.
From the youth of our First Nations to first generation Canadians, now is a more important time than ever to support giving these communities a voice and a lens of their own to allow their stories to be told through their eyes.
NPAC is extremely proud of this powerful initiative from its members. The photojournalist landscape has been lacking diversity for too long and this is a positive step in the right direction, building the visual journalists of tomorrow."
For more information, please go to: www.roomupfront.ca.
Apply at www.roomupfront.ca #CanadianBIPOCMentorship.
SOURCE News Photographers Association of Canada
Media Contact: Laura Balance, 604-637-6646 (direct), 604-771-5176 (cell), [email protected]
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