The Shutha Team

Introduction to the Shutha Team

Shutha has been created by a team of experts from Africa and other parts of the world, all of whom have been involved in training Majority World photographers, and some of whom are actively involved in promoting photography and multimedia produced by Majority World photographers.

D J Clark

D J Clark is a contract multimedia reporter for China Daily, Director of Visual Journalism at the Asia Center for Journalism and Course leader on the MA International Multimedia Journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University (in collaboration with the University of Bolton, UK). He also researches and writes about visual journalism as a vehicle for social change, the subject that drives both his journalistic and academic work. DJ runs visual journalism workshops throughout the world, most recently for Canon in China and the Philippines, The British Council in Croatia, Mozambique and Vietnam and for World Press Photo in the Philippines and across Africa. In 2008 he gave a keynote speech at the World Press Photo Awards on the growth of Majority World Photojournalism based on a PhD he completed in 2009 at the University of Durham that focused on photojournalism as a tool for social change in the Developing World. 

FIGURE 1 DJ Clark (centre) assesses the work of Nigerian photographer Adolphus Opara (right) during a multimedia workshop run in Lusaka, Zambia as part of the Twenty Ten project

DJ Clark graduated from Lancaster University in 1984 and went on to work as a photojournalist. In 1989 he moved to Ramallah, Palestine, where he worked as an international wire photographer for two years. Returning to the UK late 1991 he established Folly, an agency producing still and moving images for aid agencies. Folly developed into a public media arts centre and continues to thrive. DJ started lecturing in photography, first at Lancaster University and then as course leader on the BA Photography and Video degree at The University of Bolton. In 2005 he set up a new MA in Photography that ran for four years in Bolton, UK, and Dalian, China.

Graeme Cookson

Graeme Cookson has gained extensive experience training photographers in Africa as part of Africa Media Online's team running its Digital Campus over a period of five years and as part of the APEP team in 2008. Graeme worked in prepress from the late 1970s until the early 1980s doing camera work, image screening and plate making. He became a fulltime freelance photographer from 1983, working mainly in the magazine and newspaper industry, including working for The Times, museum photography in Europe for Yale University Press, production stills for TV programmes and news stills for BBC TV. He then turned his attention to digital imaging and now trains scanning companies, picture libraries and publishing companies, working closely with the UK-based digital imaging consultancy, Electric Lane.

FIGURE 2 Graeme Cookson teaching his course on 'Digital Imaging Essentials' during the Cape Town leg of the 2008 African Photo Entrepreneur Programme

Graeme has done staff training for some of the UK and Europe's leading picture libraries and heritage institutions, including sports photography staff at Reuters, and staff at The British Library, The British Museum, and The National Library of Ireland, The Royal Horticultral Society, and The Open University. He also consults to companies setting up digitisation processes dealing with everything from the initial installation of scanners through to workflow and production issues. He works with photographers, picture researchers, picture editors, scanner operators and designers. Graeme is a sought-after speaker at major international conventions in the imaging industry such as CEPIC. Recently Graeme has been involved with the International Press and Telecommunications Council (IPTC) in creating the new IPTC-PLUS Metadata toolkit for Adobe CS products for the new IPTC metadata schema. 

Peter Krogh

Peter Krogh is part of the project management and leadership of Shutha. He was also part of the APEP team in 2008 and has had hands-on experience with training photographers in Africa. He is a professional photographer himself and has served photographers all over the world by writing what is known today as the foremost resource on Digital Asset Management: The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers. First released in 2005, the book was updated in 2009 and is being used by imaging professionals around the world to help them organize their images and make bodies of work easily discoverable.

Peter was a Microsoft Icons of Imaging programme participant, and is recognised as a world leader in digital imaging with his courses on digital workflow sought after in many parts of the world. Peter has conducted workshops in conjunction with the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers and Nikon Australia in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland. He has also conducted masterclasses in conjunction with the Professional Photographers of America (PPA), the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA), the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and UK-based Association of Photographers Limited (AOP), and has given seminars at Imaging USA, the National Association of Professional Photographers’ Photoshop World, PDN’s PhotoPlus Expo and the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Adventure. 

FIGURE 3 Peter Krogh introducing a class to the 'Digital Ecosystem' during the Cape Town leg of the 2008 African Photo Entrepreneur Programme

Peter has been on the board of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), and his work on digital standards on their behalf, along with a number of other groups from around the world, became what is known today as UPDIG. Peter has also been involved with the development of the IPTC extended photo metadata schema. Peter is also an alpha tester for Adobe Photoshop and has developed workflow processes involving Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom and Microsoft's Expression Media. Most recently Peter was a principal author on the ASMP's dpBestFlow.org initiative which was funded by the Library of Congress.

David A Larsen

David Larsen led the development of both Africa Media Online's Digital Campus and the African Photo Entrepreneur Programme (APEP). He has also had primary responsibility for the development of Shutha. David is Managing Director of Africa Media Online based in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. A fifth generation African, and a journalist and photographer by trade, David founded Africa Media Online in 2000 with a mission to empower fellow Africans to tell Africa's story from our own perspective, and have that perspective compete in the international market. In pursuit of this passion, he has led Africa Media Online to develop a digital trade route connecting African photographers and photographic collections to a world-wide audience. The trade route includes training programmes, digitisation services, photo website systems, as well as representing photographers to local and international markets. 

FIGURE 4 David Larsen addressing participants during the Johannesburg leg of the 2008 African Photo Entrepreneur Programme

David has also been involved in envisioning significant initiatives aimed at benefiting photographers and photographic collections in Africa. In 2006 he was involved, together with Shahidul Alam and Colin Hastings, in the founding of the Majority World initiative. In 2008-2009 he developed the African Image Pipeline project with funding from the European Union through Gijima KZN. In 2008, together with Maarten Koets, Deputy Director of World Press Photo, and Dominique le Roux, he dreamed up the Twenty Ten project. 

Rosanne Larsen

Rosanne Larsen was part of the APEP team in 2008. In 2000 she founded Africa Media Online's picture library and has overseen the expansion of Africa Media Online's reach into markets in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America through its network of distributing agencies. A third generation Mozambican and Director of International Sales, Rosanne plays a pivotal roll in Africa Media Online on the interface between photographers who are supplying images and markets who want images.

FIGURE 5 Rosanne Larsen teaching during the 'Global Competitiveness Masterclass' in Pietermaritzburg during the African Photo Entrepreneur Programme

During the Twenty Ten project Rosanne was instrumental in the design and development of Africa Media Online's MEMAT 3.1 media management system which was used to power the Twenty Ten syndication web site selling use rights to the content produced. She was also responsible for distributing the content to Africa Media Online's network of distributors around the world.

Dominique Le Roux

Dominique Le Roux is Managing Director of Moonshine Media, a Cape Town-based organization that manages media projects. A South African by birth, Dominique was intimately involved in APEP 2008 and in the conceptualization of the Twenty Ten project together with deputy director of World Press Photo, Maarten Koets and Managing Director of Africa Media Online, David Larsen. Through APEP and the Twenty Ten project, Dominique has spent a number of years engaging with the needs of photographers and journalists in various parts of the Majority World.

FIGURE 6 Dominique Le Roux (left) with Durban-based commercial photographer Kim Thunder, during a photo shoot she set up as part of Africa Media Online's African Image Pipeline project

Dominique was a member of the Twenty Ten project's Virtual Editorial Team and had primary responsibility for engaging markets for the work that was produced through social networking and media exposure. Dominique has almost 20 years experience in the media world as a writer, magazine editor, book publisher, web content manager, television presenter and photographic agent.