Kangelaste prospekt 18-65
20206 Narva Estonia
Estonia
- Media
femLENS is a nonprofit (registered in Estonia, nr. 80429622), volunteer-based, women-led association. It includes 2 board members and up to 10 volunteers in other departments (grants, copy-writers, designers, and researchers), depending on the current needs. femLENS works on a project-based budget with other NGOs, community centres, libraries, other groups, and crowd-funding. Our main funders so far are: German Embassy in Estonia, Dublin South County Council in Ireland. We teach documentary photography workshops and on digital literacy, host exhibitions, publish magazines and zines, and develop and organise online campaigns. Our previous partners: ENoMW - Belgium Balgaddy Child & Family Centre - Ireland Gdynia Youth Centre an Gdynia Library - Poland Basmeh Zeitooneh - Lebanon Parity NGO - Ukraine Futuro En Femenino - Spain Die Lernwerkstatt, International Women Space Berlin, Kunst trotz(t) Ausgrenzung, Amal Berlin - Germany VitaTiim - Estonia
femLENS’ primary objective is to help women believe that their perspective is important, inspiring them to find the courage to develop their own voice through visual expression. The hope is not only to give the participants and the femLENS community a platform, but also to embolden women to carry that courage into other aspects of their lives. femLENS shares this mission through workshops, exhibitions, publications and advocacy across the globe.
Since 2015, femLENS has held sixteen full workshops in twelve countries with more than ninety participants. We have worked with single mothers in Ireland, women with physical disabilities in Poland, female refugees in Lebanon and women vulnerable to human trafficking in Ukraine. We held several workshops in Germany, workshop with teenage girls in Estonia, online workshop with Palestinian women living in Israel, online workshop with women from Mexico, England and Congo and online workshop with Russian speakers, online workshop with Cameroonian women in media and Irish women network. We have published five issues of women-only documentary photography magazine - We See, a book “Unlearning the ordinary: through a lens for the commons*“, a photo book to celebrate five years of stories. “Unlearning the Ordinary: through a lens for the commons*”, two zines. Hosted a digital photo festival “HER|visual|STORY” in 2020. Since March 2021 we have: run 7 campaigns published 22 articles for campaigns featured 57 stories for the campaigns published one zine based on collective work (one zine in production) published 8 photo projects specifically for campaigns. In 2022 we published a community survey to gain a better understanding of the needs, challenges and ambitions of women image makers working with documentary photography.
We are always looking to partner with non-profit associations, community centres, libraries and other groups who are interested in learning documentary photography and storytelling as a tool for documentation of the work and life of their communities. We have an active and growing community of women around the world who are eager and equipped to tell their authentic stories. Networking is a great opportunity to meet with community members, support the community to have free discussions and share personal stories, but also a potential source of collaboration projects between partners and femLENS. These opportunities altogether create a sustainable platform where ideas can be incubated into projects while receiving community support.
The ALF Network is a chance to learn from other organisations and get a platform to share the work of femLENS' community, amplifying their voices for the broad audience. It is also a chance to find trusting, like-minded partners for future projects and collaboration.
