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Joanna Lipper is a
rare combination of beauty and brains. The writer, filmmaker and
photographer has been in residence at Harvard University’s W.E.B.
DuBois Institute for two years. She was in Lagos recently as part of
the Black Heritage Festival where she shared notes and images from her
research work in Zanzibar.

Lipper, who runs
Seawall Entertainment, previously worked on a project called ’Growing
up Fast’ featuring a documentary, a book and a series of images about
teenage mothers in America.

She also speaks
about her work with children. “I’ve done a film as well about children
and their imagination; looking at children from all different
nationalities and looking at their creativity and imagination.”

Lipper’s debut feature film ’Little Fugitive’ was released in 2008.

NEXT caught up with her during her short trip to Lagos, to find out about her work and mission.

Woman with a mission

“I’m a film
director and a writer and so each project brings a new challenge, a new
field of research for me. If I’m adapting one particular novel, I do
all the research related to that so that I can bring that author’s
vision to the screen.

“So when I’m doing
something about teenage mothers, I spend several years immersing myself
in their culture and in their life. I immerse myself in research for
several years before completing a project. So it’s really to tell a
story through film and through photography and through writing.”

By recording her
work in film, books and pictures, the idea is for them to have a
positive effect and to be eternal. Her link to the communities in her
focus however does not end with each project.

“Most of the
communities that I have done work with have participated when the film
has been shown in different settings. The teen mothers in America did
several radio shows and they did some television appearances in the
United States and so they participated in having an impact on how
people perceived teen pregnancy and parenting in the United States.”

Described by none
other than Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka as “being active and
curious about humanity”, Lipper’s most recent project is the Zanzibar
series: ’Seaweed Farmers’ and ’Women in Zanzibar.’

The captivating
images of female seaweed farmers at work and the multi socio-cultural
existences of the Tanzanian island are a result of Lipper’s research
work on the island, which is a co-location for her proposed feature
film ’Girl from Zanzibar’.

Lipper co-write the
screenplay and will be directing the screen adaptation of the eponymous
novel by Roger King. The reason behind her choice is simple.

“I just thought it
was a beautiful novel and an amazing story.” The novel tells the story
of a young, Zanziban woman, who is of Goan and Arab descent.

In a coup of geniuses, Henry Louis Gates Jr., director at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute, is Executive Producer for the film.

Lipper’s photo
essays on ’Seaweed Farmers’ and ’Women in Zanzibar’ form part of her
continued interest in women and their professions. This interest has
also been piqued on her first trip to Lagos.

The photographer,
who has visited three other African countries (Kenya, Morocco and
Tanzania), did not want to reveal the exact details of her proposed
photography series on Nigeria. She however admitted that the theme of
the photography series would also focus on women and their professions.

“I’m very
interested in women at work and in women and their professions. I did
the seaweed farmers in Zanzibar and I’m interested in continuing to
explore women and their professions. I’m hoping to visit (Nigeria) as
much as I can and I’m hoping to see as much as possible (of the
environment)”.

Attracting attention

Her proposed collaborators on the forthcoming project are none other than the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND).

Amy Oyekunle,
executive director at KIND, said of the proposed venture, “KIND’s
mission is to strengthen organisations and create initiatives dedicated
to the advancement of women. Hence, all our programmes are geared
towards empowering women through capacity-building programs while
creating platforms that support them in Nigeria.

“We are
collaborating with renowned photojournalist Joanna Lipper in a ‘women @
work’ series photo exhibition for two reasons. First, it is to enable
us showcase to the Nigeria society that women have gone beyond
traditional roles – borders of work and have been and continue to
contribute to the Continent’s economic development in every way.
Second, it is to enable the Nigerian society value and appreciate the
work of women and their contributions.”

KIND joins a list
of Lipper fans and collaborators. Paula Tognarelli, executive director
of the Griffin Museum of Photography has already nominated Lipper for
the Prix Pictet based on her ‘Seaweed Farmers’ series. A solo show is
also planned for January – March 2012 at the Massachusetts-based museum.

Tognarelli’s comment on Lipper’s work was all-encompassing.

“I am interested in
Joanna Lipper’s body of work ‘Seaweed Farmers’ because it melds the
poignant issues of a fragile global economy, the infrastructure of
Zanzibar and the women, who live in its rural villages through the
lyrical vehicle of her photographs.

“Metaphorically,
she has chosen the women, who harvest the seaweed as her messengers.
The poetry of the imagery of these women brings meaning that lingers
long after words.” Lipper’s work also features on developmental
photography website SocialDocumentary.net, a visual database for
development issues affecting societies globally.

The Seaweed Center
has also been drawn to her work on seaweed farming in Zanzibar. Run by
a group of 28 students based in Goteborg, Sweden, the project is aimed
at supporting seaweed farmers on the Tanzanian island. Sebastian
Palmgren, one of the students, said their ”project aligns with the
issues Joanna is addressing with her exhibitions.”

For the cause

The eagerness to
work with Lipper is obvious from Palmgren’s words: “Our common vision
is to through the power of photography address the issues of gender,
cross-cultural communication and microfinance in an exhibition combined
by art and reality.

“We want to use the
power of photography to make people come to the exhibitions and make
the visitors connect and get interested in our endeavour in Zanzibar.”

To further Lipper’s
cause for empowering women across communities, The Seaweed Center is
also planning its own run of exhibitions.

“In order to raise
awareness about women’s situation in Africa, we are together with
Joanna working to get the exhibitions on various museum in northern
Europe and first of all in Goteborg’s Konsthall, The Göteborg Museum of
Art and The Museum of World Culture also in Göteborg.”

Lipper believes such attention is beneficial to the communities addressed in her work.

“As a photographer,
I am very interested in collaborating with organisations like KIND and
The Seaweed Center as they work tirelessly to include, empower and
educate women so as to enable them to participate more fully in the
formal economy, earning their own incomes.”

During her
presentation at the Black Heritage Festival, Lipper complained of the
absence of women empowerment in many communities, which led to their
being exploited by larger business organisations and government
policies. The need for literacy and business management skills, she
said could not be undervalued. She stressed the same point here
highlighting the effectiveness of photography in bringing these issues
to light.

“The crucial thing is for these women to have access to the necessary skills, knowledge, community support and opportunities.

“Photography is a
powerful tool because it has the capacity to make the potential of
women, who may previously have been deprived, underestimated and
marginalised, very visible and present with startling, undeniable
immediacy.”

Lipper, who recently joined the Harvard Faculty as a visiting
lecturer is excited about her proposed Nigerian project scheduled for
June this year and in teaching a course titled ‘Media across Cultures’.