“No one can do it better than you:” Ala Kheir on the Hopeful State of African Photography

He started experimenting with his friend’s point-and-shoot camera while studying mechanical engineering in Malaysia. “I started photography to get a more beautiful picture,” he remembers. “But it becomes more interesting the more you learn about it as a tool, a voice, a way of thinking and a way of telling stories — that’s how the addiction started. The photographs become a metaphor for a bigger message.”

Twenty years later, his images have been published in international magazines and exhibitions from Addis Ababa to New York City. Kheir has createdThe Other Vision (TOV) mentorship program and chaired several photography competitions.

Before this war, he had documented the conflicts in Darfur and Tigray and the Sudanese revolution. Still, he does not consider himself a photojournalist. “I use photography to investigate everything around me, and it just so happens that Sudan has so much going on,” he says. “I’m a Sudanese playing my role.”

Kheir believes that photography can change perceptions, but most Africans lack the access and means to muster the effort it takes to become a photographer. For example, there was no photography school in Sudan, so Kheir founded Sudanese Photographers, a peer learning space for like-minded artists.

“Being a self-taught photographer, the internet was a main source of information,” he says. “But the internet is driven by marketing and telling you to get a certain kind of image so that you end up buying cameras.”

Sudanese photographers hosted workshops and exhibitions that elevated new talents. They also hosted the Mugran Photo Week, a platform that engaged photography from the continent and entered into conversation with the Sudanese public.

Based on these successful projects, Kheir founded TOV, a year-long lecture, assignments, and one-on-one mentorship program that helps photographers move from single images to photographic narratives.

Kheir will be chairing the Africa and the global jury of the 2025 World Press Photo contest. Arguably the most prestigious photo and documentary journalism award, the contest recently changed its methodology by adding regional awards. “The two segments allow more stories to be heard and give photographers a better chance,” says Kheir.

While this is a good first step, he maintains that Africa needs more platforms to represent its variety of contemporary photography and make space for people from less-represented countries to showcase their perspectives.

“African photography is way more developed than people from the outside could imagine,” says Kheir. “Most African photographers are self-educated, which gives them a kind of uniqueness. They react and deal with issues from a different, creative, and deeply personal point of view.”

His workshops and photography have taken Kheir across the continent, for example, as part of theInvisible Borders Trans-African Photographic Initiative. Road-tripping from Lagos to Addis Ababa, he became aware of the peculiar similarities and minute differences of the countries he encountered. “Traveling is educational in general, but within Africa, it’s another amazing experience,” he says. “It’s almost like a deja vu.”

At the same time, he realized how little Africans know about each other. Through visualizing places all over the continent, photography can become a gateway for Africans to learn about each other and enter a conversation about the one question that keeps showing up in the projects Kheir encounters: what does it mean to be an African today?

Entries to theWorld Press Photo contest are open until Jan. 10, 2025. “I want to encourage everybody to apply,” he says. “When you apply with a photo narrative or long-term project, it’s a beautiful process that will help you bring everything in order and finalize your work.”

Kheir’s main criteria when evaluating submissions are originality, personalization and a unique point of view. “If you look at the winning images, it’s always a local photographer talking about a particular space they know,” he says. “I want to see new ways of presenting the realities on the continent.”

He is hopeful about emerging innovation as African voices in photography increase and diversify. “The future is positive,” he concludes with a smile. “It’s a privilege to engage with these fresh perspectives.”