Nassim Rouchiche is the Tierney Bamako Award winner
The Market Photo Workshop in partnership with the Tierney Family Foundation and the Bamako Encounters is delighted to announce the 2016 fellow, Algerian photographer Nassim Rouchiche.
The winner was selected at the 10th edition of the Bamako Encounters held in Mali in October 2015. Artists were commissioned to exhibit their work with the theme “Telling Time”. The award offers the recipient an opportunity to explore issues that are affecting the continent, producing a new body of work with the guidance of an established mentor and infrastructure at the Market Photo Workshop over a 15-month period.
About the winner
Nassim Rouchiche was born in 1977, he studied at Université des Sciences et des Technologies Houari Boumediène, Algiers, where he qualified as a civil engineer. He is a self taught photographer whose curiosity about the visual arts in photography was sparked as an 11 year old boy growing up in Algiers. He received acclaim from the jury at the Bamako Encounters with his stark body of work “ Ça Va Waka” documenting the marginalised migrant community in Algeria.
Through his work he documents the uncertain and precarious state of the “undocumented” migrants that travel to Algeria for a better life but remains unprotected by the law and perceived as invincible in Algerian society. Nassim says he spent two weeks in immersed with a small community of migrants from the Central African Republic to understand how they came to live in Algeria and what keeps them in the country with the looming threat of deportation. Migration on the continent due to civil war, economic uncertainty and scarce resources is a common and troubling social challenges on the continent.
Nassim will be mentored throughout the fellowship by an established photographer of his choice. He is expected to produce a body of work in Algeria with the support of his mentor and attend two two-day critique sessions of his work with invited academics, visual artists and subject specialists at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg.
About The Tierney Family Foundation
The Tierney Family Foundation was founded over 20 years ago in the United States to support a range of domestic and international causes from education, supporting emerging artists, women’s rights, environmental issues, sports and leadership development all on a global scale. Collectively, the family remains active, passionate and dedicated to affecting positive change both through business and philanthropy, with particular focus on Africa.
Please see http://www.tierneyfellowship.org/ for more information.
About the Bamako Encounters, Biennale of African Photography
Organised by the Malian Ministry of Culture and Institut français, the Bamako Encounters is the first and principal international platform dedicated to African photography on the continent. A veritable platform for discovery, exchanges and interaction, the Bamako Encounters are known as a meeting place for African photographers and other art professionals from across the world. Bamako Biennale 10th Edition, from 31st October to 31st December 2015.
The Executive Director of the Bamako Encounters is Samuel Sidibe, Director of the National Museum of Mali. The Artistic Director of the 10th Bamako Encounters is Bisi Silva, an independent curator and the Director, CCA, Lagos.
For interviews please send requests to:
media@marketphotoworkshop.co.za
For more information, please contact:
Bekie Ntini
Coordinator: Mentorships and Training
T +27 (0) 11 834 1444
E-mail: bekien@marketphotoworkshop.co.za
