Behind the Lens: Founding Bakashimika International Photography Festival (Virtual)
About this event
Join us for a conversation with the founders of Bakashimika International Photography Festival — the first photography festival in Zambia and the only one of its kind in Southern Africa.
Patrick Chilaisha, Edith Chiliboy, Geoffrey Phiri, and Dr Kerstin Hacker will share the story behind the creation of Bakashimika, which launched in Lusaka in 2025 and brought together 40 Southern African artists across 20 exhibitions. Discover how this groundbreaking festival is shaping national and international conversations around photography, visual identity, and cultural collaboration.
What to expect:
- Insights into the founding journey and creative vision
- Introduction to featured artists and their work
- Audience Q&A with the founders
Dr Kerstin Hacker, Senior Academic in Photography at Cambridge School of Art, will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the research and privilege-cognisant mentorship practices that helped bring Bakashimika to life. Learn how critical creative practice can drive international dialogue and foster new platforms for artistic expression.
This event is ideal for: photographers, artists, curators, cultural producers, and anyone interested in African visual storytelling and arts-led social change.
Explore more: Visit Bakashimika.com before the event to discover the festival’s exhibitions and artists.
About our speaker
Dr Kerstin Hacker is a leading researcher in decolonial photographic practice. Her work centres on collaborative methodologies to challenge (neo)colonial visual narratives and promote visual self-governance. She co-founded Bakashimika International Photography Festival and held fellowships at Cambridge Visual Culture (Cambridge University) and the Affect and Colonialism Lab (Freie Universität Berlin).
Her current project, Forty Buckets, in collaboration with painter Geoffrey Phiri and a village community in northern Zambia, explores the human impact of informal manganese mining. Dr Hacker’s research advances creative methodologies, fosters international partnerships, and collaborative knowledge creation. Hacker, K. (2022) Us in Relation to the Universe: Collaborative North-South Photographic Practice Research in Radical Pedagogy and the Photographic Image, London.
Event presented as part of the Cambridge Festival.