2025: A year about access!

Unpublished Africa in 2025 — A Year in Brief

2025 at Unpublished Africa focused on access: access to space, access to skills, and access to each other.

Below is a brief overview of what we worked on this year.

Publishing & Exhibitions

• Africa Published Volume 3: Lost in Translation

• From the African Streets Vol. 2 (English and Portuguese)

• I’d Be Empowered If — Women’s Group Photography Exhibition (10 photographers, 9 countries)

• Streets as Archives — Group Photography Exhibition (32 photographers, 15 countries)

• Molokay: L’écho d’un homme et de sa forêt — Solo exhibition by Joyce Kipunga

• Representation — Group Photography Exhibition (19 photographers, 8 countries)

• Africa Published Volume 4: For the Four

Learning & Conversations

• Creative Business Studio — Cohort 4

• 4 Creative Conversations — Virtual discussions, including one French-language session

• White Paper: Navigating the Path to Arts Education in Africa

• White Paper: I’d Be Empowered If… Unlocking True Empowerment for African Women in Photography

Photo Walks & Community Building

Photo walks remained our main entry point for engagement.

We hosted over 20 Photo Walks and exchanges across:

🇰🇪 Nairobi, 🇿🇼 Harare, 🇿🇲 Lusaka, 🇺🇬 Kampala, 🇳🇬 Lagos, 🇳🇬 Jos, 🇪🇹 Addis Ababa, 🇨🇩 Kinshasa, 🇳🇬 Abuja, 🇳🇬 Ibadan, 🇳🇬 Abeokuta, 🇿🇼 Bulawayo, 🇿🇼 Chinhoyi, 🇧🇼 Maun, 🇦🇴 Bié.

For many participants, these were first exhibitions and first opportunities to meet collaborators.

Why We Do This Work

Unpublished Africa works to make access practical.

We focus on creating opportunities, skills, and networks that help creative work develop into sustainable careers within an African context.

We work with creatives at early and in-between stages, where talent is present but career pathways are not always clear. Our role is to create first openings which we do through exhibitions, photo walks, conversations, and learning spaces.

We exist because visibility affects careers and because early opportunities create momentum. African photographers need systems that support long-term creative work, and we are beyond grateful for your support in 2025.

A Note of Thanks

As we close the year, we want to thank everyone who contributed to our work.

Thank you to our collaborators and Unpublished Africa Photo Walk hosts who shared their time, knowledge, and spaces with growing creative communities.

Thank you to every photographer who trusted us with their work, their time, and their careers. Across cities and languages, you all participated, learned, exhibited, and engaged in difficult conversations around money, visibility, and sustainability.

This work is built on trust, and we take that responsibility seriously.

We appreciate your continued support and look forward to building further in the year ahead.

You can expect to hear more about Unpublished Africa Photo Week too.

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