Stepping out of the shadows
One of the benefits of social media is the way that it enables people to find and connect with other people like themselves, whether it be around a shared interest, background, experience, or around similar values and opinions. There are dozens of these groups in photography, some of which we have featured in AP, but one of the big success stories of recent years is the growth of a group exclusively for black female photographers called UKBFTOG. It came about almost by chance when London-based portrait and wedding photographer Jemella Ukaegbu had a realisation one day back in December 2017.
‘I’d been a photographer for many years, and came to notice that whenever I went to anything within the industry – conventions, workshops and so forth – I never saw any other people who looked like me: who were black, who were female. It was a bit confusing – I was thinking, I’m sure I can’t be the only black woman photographer in the UK. So I put a tweet out, saying “where are all the black female photographers?” and my phone went crazy with all these people saying, “I’m here!”. I thought, “Oh my gosh, there’s so many of us!” It was the same on Instagram.’
At first, there was no aspiration to start a group, but then someone messaged her and said, ‘I can’t wait to see what you’ve got planned,’ and it got her thinking. ‘I was like, “Huh? Oh, okay…” Being self-employed, you don’t get to go to Christmas parties and things like that and I wanted to hang out with other photographers like me who I could connect with and relate to, and go out shooting with. So I thought I’d try and make
