INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTRE KURDISTAN

International photographer Eddy van Wessel returned to Sulaymaniya and started a 3 day workshop for students of the Media Faculty of Sulaymaniya University. Fifteen students came to the training hall of the IMCK on Saturday November 10, 2012 to work with him on the basics of photography. The workshop is the result of cooperation of IMCK with Sulaymaniya University and the Department of Youth of the KRG Ministry of Culture. Van Wessel, a prize winning journalist, is a regular trainer with IMCK and works regularly in the Middle East and other conflict zones. The pictures are on Facebook .

Eddy van Wessel stayed for a second training in Kirkuk, where he worked with a group of eleven journalists on how to make a photo story on illegal immigration. The workshop was a cooperation between IMCK and STATT, to inform journalists about the issues concerning (illegal) immigration. The training started on September 27, 2012 at the offices of the Youth Media Centre in Kirkuk. For STATT, Hazhar Taha and Goran Sabah gave the participants information about illegal immigration, statistics and consequenses of immigration for the immigrants and their families, while Van Wessel focused on the photo story and gave technical advice to the photographers. For photo's of the workshops see Facebook . They, and others, are invited to submit their photo stories for a prize and a place at a special exhibition in December in Erbil that STATT and IMCK will organize in coordination with the KRG Minister of Culture. The best three photo stories on illegal immigration will be part of th...

Kirkuk needs better photographers. That is why international photographer Eddy van Wessel started a three day workshop on 'Telling a story in a picture' for photographers in Kirkuk. The workshop started on September 23 and is taking place at the Save the Children building in Kirkuk, with twelve participants from different backgrounds. Photo's of the workshop can be found on Facebook . Van Wessel has already trained a number of times for IMCK in Iraq. He is a prize winning photographer from the Netherlands, who has worked in war zones, for instance in Iraq and recently in Syria. He uses his material and that of others for the training. A second photography training, on making photo stories about illegal immigration, will take place from September 26 in Kirkuk, again with Van Wessel as the trainer.

IMCK and Shell cooperated on their first project in Basrah. At the University of Basrah international photographer Eddy van Wessel on May 20, 2012 started a 3 day workshop on photography. The main theme of the workshop was the photo story, focusing on subjects like environment and the Shatt al Arab. Some 15 photographers took part in the workshop, that will run until May 22.

International trainer Eddy van Wessel briefed colleagues in Baghdad about working in difficult environments. He worked amongst others in Afghanistan and Chechnya. A discussion was started about the ethics of working in dangerous places, and about making pictures that are unsellable because of their violent or gruesome images. The evening session in the office of the newspaper Sabah al Jedid on  May 15, 2012 was attended by about ten journalists from different media outlets in Baghdad.

International photographer Eddy van Wessel took his workshop on photo stories to Baghdad. On May 13, 2012 he started a 3 day workshop for ten participants from different media from all over Baghdad. All participants are experienced photographers. The workshop is organised in cooperation with the newspaper Sabah al Jedid, and is taking place in the office of the newspaper in Baghdad.

On May 9, the photography workshop on illegal immigration IMCK organized in Sulaymaniyah in cooperation with STATT has been finalized. It was the first step in the project on illegal immigration. In total eleven participants received a certificate issued by IMCK. The trainer was Eddy van Wessel, a Dutch photographer who has won international prizes. See the movie about the workshop See our Facebook for pictures and more information about other workshops.

May 8 and 9, IMCK will start in cooperation with STATT a photography workshop on illegal immigration in Sulaymaniya. Many young people in Iraqi Kurdistan want to leave the country. But as visas are hard to come by, many use smugglers and buy passports with a visa. This illegal immigration has many bad consequences. Therefore IMCK wants to inform Kurdish photographers, journalists and bloggers about the problems, and organize a documentary festival and a photo exhibition on the subject. The photography workshop will be the first step in the project on illegal immigration for Kurdish media. Photographers have been invited to participate on how to make a good photo story. Eddy van Wessel , a Dutch photographer who has won international prizes, will come to work with fifteen participants from Iraqi Kurdistan. IMCK tries to improve the quality of the media in Iraq. STATT will be involved by providing experts on illegal immigration, who will provide the background...

Eddy van Wessel returned to Kurdistan to conduct another workshop on portrait photography. Van Wessel is an internationally admired photographer who traveled the world ( http://www.eddyvanwessel.com/ ). The training, that focusses on portrait photography but also covers basics, started on October 14, 2011 in the IMCK training hall in Erbil and lasts three days. The 11 participants are from Erbil and Kirkuk. Some of them work as reporters who also make pictures, some work as photographers.

International photographer Eddy van Wessel returned to Kurdistan. He offered twenty photographers from Iraq a masterclass in photography. The participants are both from the Kurdish region and from Iraq. The workshop takes place from August 26 -29, 2009, at the training hall of the IMCK in Sulaymaniya. Because of the size of the group, the class is split up in a Kurdish morning session and an Arabic afternoon session. Van Wessel has been training at IMCK two times before. His participants are mainly working for the main newspapers and websites in Sulaymaniya, and for media in Arabic Iraq. The workshop is co-sponsored by SIMI (Supporting Independent Media in Iraq) in Baghdad. On one of the training days he had help from co-trainer and AP-photographer Yahya Barzinji, who talked about the practical sides of working as a photographer.

Eddy van Wessel, the international photographer from Holland, is back in Kurdistan. He will be doing a workshop for his Kurdish colleagues in Irbil on telling a story in a picture. The best pictures from the last workshop he did in Sulaymaniya (in June 2008) can still be seen in the training hall of the IMCK. The workshop in Irbil (from November 6-10) has been organised by IMCK in coordination with Media Work Development Organization.