What Happens After We Train Creatives?

What four cohorts of Creative Business Studio are teaching us about building stronger pathways and community infrastructure for African visual storytellers.

Author

Unpublished Africa
August 31, 2026

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Welcome to African Visual Storyteller! Your weekly guide to African photographers, exhibitions, and creative opportunities.

This space exists to support visibility, connection, and real pathways for African creatives. Thank you for being part of our growing ecosystem.

African Visual Storytellers of the Week #70

This week’s African visual storyteller is Jorge Dachala 🇦🇴

Jorge Dachala 🇦🇴  - Homa Bay, Kenya, 2025. Exhibited at the Unpublished Africa ‘Tiyende/Twende’ group exhibition at Bakashimika International Photography Festival in Zambia, 2026.

We invite you to lead an Unpublished Africa Photo Walk in your city

Harare Photo Walk 🇿🇼, 2025 coordinated by Creative Business Studio Cohort 4 Alumni

We have recently received numerous requests for programming in new locations, and we are officially opening this up to our wider network. You can apply as a city representative, host, and if there already is a host, you can also volunteer as a co-host.

Photo walks have proven to have an impact of photography communities growth and serve as a portfolio building tool for new and experienced photographers.

Sign up here:

For those who have already applied, please look out for an email from us this week.

Upcoming Events and Photo Walks

Register for our Kampala Photo Walk 🇺🇬

Kampala Photo Walk (June, 2026) held in collaboration with Muwado and Global Shapers Kampala

 🇺🇬 Register for Kampala Photo Walk:

Register for the Akisi Photography Residency 2026 (in collaboration with Dar Photo Festival)

In the Press

Unpublished Africa has made notable features the past few weeks; in Kenya’s The People Daily paper and DW’s Afrimaxx, which featured the Nairobi Photo Walk, Kenya, and Lusaka Photo Walk, Zambia, respectively.

We are grateful for these features that demonstrate the impact and importance of the photo walks.

The Tools at Our Disposal: CBS and Photo Walks

Creative Business Studio began as a six-week programme for emerging African visual storytellers and has developed into one of Unpublished Africa's pathways for helping creatives move from practice into more sustainable participation in the creative economy. Across four cohorts, the programme has supported photographers and visual storytellers from 18 African countries, addressing areas such as pricing, contracts, intellectual property, finance, monetisation, digital entrepreneurship and emerging tools such as AI.

These are practical skills, but their significance extends beyond business development. For many photographers, learning how to make strong images is only one part of building a sustainable practice. Understanding how to price, protect, publish, position and monetise that work can determine whether creative practice can become economically viable.

Creative Business Studio therefore addresses one part of the infrastructure challenge facing African creatives. Photo Walks address another.

A participant during the Lusaka Photo Walk, August, 2025

Unpublished Africa Photo Walks extend this work into local communities. They are organised through existing networks and provide accessible spaces for photographers to practise, connect and build their portfolios.

During the 2024 and 2025 editions of Unpublished Africa Photo Week (UAPW), locally led Photo Walks became city-level nodes through which a shared continental programme was delivered. UAPW grew from three cities in 2024 to fifteen cities across nine countries in 2025.

The relationship between Creative Business Studio and Unpublished Africa Photo Week becomes clearer when we look at who is leading this work.

Creative Business Studio alumni lead Photo Walks, facilitate creative conversations, organise exhibitions, establish initiatives and support other creatives. Our white paper Distributed Cultural Infrastructure in Africa: Lessons from Unpublished Africa Photo Week identifies this movement from participant to facilitator as an important leadership pipeline.

Jos Photo Walk 🇳🇬 2026 led by Gil Dachomo, Creative Business Studio Cohort 4 Alumni 



Rather than leaving programme participants at the end of a training cycle, the Unpublished Africa model creates opportunities for them to become contributors to the wider ecosystem.

This changes how we should think about the impact of Creative Business Studio.

Its impact is not limited to the number of people who complete the six-week programme. It can also be seen in what participants go on to build, lead and make possible for others.

The Goma Photo Walk 🇨🇩, for example, led by Creative Business Studio Cohort 3 alumna Joyce Kipunga, who has since also established Huru Kama Sanaa. The Bie Photo Walk in Angola 🇦🇴 was led by Maria de Lurdes Pedro from Cohort 4.

These examples demonstrate how participants can move from receiving support to creating access points for other photographers within their own communities.

This is particularly significant in cities where formal photographic infrastructure may be limited. A Photo Walk can create an accessible point of entry where photographers meet, exchange knowledge, develop portfolios and begin forming professional relationships., and begin building community.

This matters because community is often one of the less visible barriers to participation.

A photographer may have technical ability and the desire to develop their practice, but without peers, networks, information and opportunities for collaboration, progression can be difficult. Unpublished Africa's Photo Walk model responds to this by making the first point of engagement local and accessible.

Lusaka Photo Walk 2026 🇿🇲 Led by Namukolo Siyumbwa Creative Business Studio Cohort 1 Alumni



For many participants, an Unpublished Africa Photo Walk is their first creative event and their first introduction to a wider photography community. The pathway does not necessarily end with the walk. Participants can go on to submit work for publications, exhibitions, newsletter features and other opportunities. In this way, we also view Photo Walks as portfolio-building tools within the Unpublished Africa network.

Creative Business Studio participants who are photographers can also contribute to Africa Published, providing a professional publishing context through which they can strengthen their portfolios and gain visibility beyond social media. Together, these activities create a continuum between learning, participation, visibility and leadership.

Creative Business Studio develops the business knowledge and professional capacity creatives need to participate more sustainably in the creative economy. Photo Walks provide a local space to practise, build relationships and begin creating opportunities for others. Publications and exhibitions provide further platforms for visibility, portfolio development and professional progression.

Together, they demonstrate Unpublished Africa's approach to creative ecosystem development:

  • Creative Business Studio builds individual capacity, supporting creatives who can become stronger practitioners, collaborators, facilitators and community leaders.

  • Photo Walks turn that capacity into local infrastructure, providing one of the mechanisms through which leadership, knowledge-sharing and community can take root in different cities.

  • Publications and exhibitions create progression opportunities, helping participants move from local participation into wider professional and public platforms.

When creatives are equipped with business knowledge, professional networks and opportunities to strengthen their practice, the impact extends beyond the individual. As they move into Photo Walks, exhibitions, publications and community leadership, they begin to create opportunities, share knowledge and strengthen the ecosystem around them.

An initial investment in one creative can contribute to a wider network of participation, leadership and opportunity.

For Unpublished Africa, this shift from individual development to community infrastructure is central to how we are building a stronger, more connected and geographically diverse visual storytelling ecosystem across the continent.

Sign up for our upcoming Creative Business Studio Cohort 5 here: https://airtable.com/apppRNM0ijTxxXaGG/pagJSQY8Mr0fkEypo/form

Unpublished Africa White Papers

Read our white paper Distributed Cultural Infrastructure in Africa: Lessons from Unpublished Africa Photo Week here:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/403346704_Distributed_Cultural_Infrastructure_in_Africa_Lessons_from_Unpublished_Africa_Photo_Week

Photo Walk Archive

Were you part of an Unpublished Africa Photo Walk? We’d love to see what you captured! Upload your photos to the Photo Walk Archive and help us document the journey.

Other Opportunities:

Help Us Improve What We’re Building

If you’ve joined an Unpublished Africa photo walk, exhibition, programme, or conversation, we’d really appreciate a quick Google rating and review.

It takes a few minutes, and it goes a long way in helping us build better infrastructure for African creatives.

👉 Leave a review here: https://g.page/r/CYo40kkDN_4UEBM/review

Thank you for being part of the journey and for helping shape what comes next.

➡️ Share this newsletter with a friend or colleague interested in the African creative economy!

Thank you for continuing to build with us.

More conversations, walks, and opportunities ahead.

— Unpublished Africa