International Photography Festival
Bakashimika [ba:ka:∫i:mi:ka:]
Bemba for: ‘Collective of Storytellers’
‘they will tell stories in the future’
The Bakashimika International Photography Festival is an annual photography festival which celebrates the rich photographic community in Zambia and the Southern African region. The festival provides a platform for emerging southern African photographers, who tell new and innovative African stories through photography and lens-based art.
The Bakashimika International Photography Festival brings together the wealth of photographic practices in Zambia and the region and raises awareness of the existing photographic talent.
The Bakashimika International Photography Festival recognises the lack of spaces for emerging photographic artists to show their work and network with the global photographic industry.
The Bakashimika International Photography Festival gives a platform to the visual storytellers and their contemporary stories found within the vibrant and visually exciting photographic arts community of Southern African.
The Bakashimika International Photography Festival recognises the steady growth in local audience numbers during photography events and aims to introduce photography to broader audiences in Southern Africa.
The Bakashimika International Photography Festival contributes to creative education and photographic research in the region.
The Bakashimika International Photography Festival aims to be part of the international photography festival circuit and attract international photographic experts and bring international audiences to Zambia.
Bakashimika International Photography Festival was invited to the Xposure Photography Festival in Sharjah, UAE from the 20-26 February 2025 to showcase eleven Zambian photographers in a group exhibition under the title Through Southern Eyes: Narratives in Focus. This was Bakashimika’s first international exhibition and networking opportunity.
Generation Z challenges the current representation of Zambia and questions the Euro-American photographic representation of the African metropole. Zambia’s cities grow at a staggering rate, and it is projected that half of Zambia’s rapidly growing population will live in urban centres by 2035. While Zambia is still categorised amongst the poorest countries in the world, its capital Lusaka offers aspirational economic opportunities to its young and ambitious consumer class.
Stories of Kalingalinga initiative exhibited during IMPAC 2024 Art Festival in March 2024. The exhibition showed work from eleven photographers produced during the Stories of Kalingalinga workshop from 2019. The exhibition brought together young, and more seasoned photographers and visual artists.
Stories of Kalingalinga in Kalingalinga In February 2024 we showcased the Stories of Kalingalinga exhibition in the Kalingalinga neighbourhood in Zambia. Bringing the photographs back to the community where they were taken in 2019 created a unique atmosphere, where personal stories and memories collided with creative narratives captured during the workshop. The community exhibition was a unique opportunity to celebrate creative expression with the people in the images.
Edith Chiliboy
Ukubuta is a personal reflection on my place in the world, how I see myself and how my life experiences have shaped me. Ukubuta is a Bemba word that describes the everyday child play, in which we learn our place in society and how we interact with each other.
To find out more about the festival and ask any further questions, do not hesitate to contact us.
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