It’s officially Women’s Month and celebrating the International women’s day is always a delight as we spotlight the phenomenal women who are making strides in the world. Today, we throw light on our own women in PICHA who are contributing their quota to the visual content being used to shape the narrative of Black people and Afro Descendants across the world. Today, we celebrate PICHA’s female Resident Photographers.
Kat Grudko (Cape Town, South Africa)
“I BELIEVE THAT THERE ARE NO LIMITS TO WHAT I (OR YOU) CAN DO. YOU JUST HAVE TO DECIDE. DECIDE AND THEN TAKE THE FIRST SMALL STEP TOWARDS THAT VISION”.
Kat always knew that she wanted to do something creative and has tried out many different things to get to where she is today, starting with modeling while in college studying Graphic Design. The modeling led to an interest in photography which, within 6 months of shooting over the weekends, quickly transitioned into her full time job. She has since then been doing photography and running her own business full time for the past 12 years. Kat started her photography career with fashion photography but has since photographed everything from events to weddings to food to product to lifestyle and stock, and most recently has put a more intentional focus on boudoir photography, officially known as Exoctic Budoir, which allows women the freedom of the intimate visual expressions of themselves.
Today, Kat is proud to be a Profoto ambassador in South Africa and the official resident photographer for PICHA Stock in South Africa with the goal to change the perception of the stories of Afrocentric people around the world by capturing real Africans in their day to day life and to create a space where African people of all kinds are represented fairly and realistically. She is also a trainer on PICHA’s YouTube channel called PICHAU where she shares her knowledge and experience through educational videos and tips on how to be a better stock photographer.
Born and bred in Johannesburg all her life until a few years ago, Kat always wanted to explore Cape Town but didn’t know how, as a freelancer, she would make the move. With all of her friends and family in Joburg, it seemed impossible, but one day, she boldly decided to try it out and the rest ‘is history’ as is popularly quoted. Even though Kat recounts the initial years of moving as tough, she highlights enjoying every process of her photography journey that has led her to where she is now. As long as she gets to make magic with another human, and they love the images, she’s a happy bean. “The happiest, in fact!” She fills her time with things that bring her joy such as documenting her travels, good food and wine and learning about herself and how to harness who she is and what she knows to serve others with her gift of photography. Clearly, Kat has a passion for helping women find their voice and express themselves through imagery. That she believes, is her true purpose in life.
Rita Harper (Atlanta, USA)
Rita Harper is a documentary photographer and photojournalist from Atlanta, Georgia. As quiet child, she grew interested in imagery and observing her surroundings – both skills that have greatly benefited her work. With no formal art education, she began to take to the streets of Atlanta and discover a style of her own. She quickly realized the affinity she had for capturing Black life and Atlanta culture simultaneously
It is her goal to show the beauty of the everyday person. Rita has captured images of everyone from unsung pillars of tight-knit communities to regular people fighting against powerful, faceless corporations. She wishes to amplify the voices and narratives of everyday, working-class Black people and people of color as a reminder that all our lives have a purpose, importance, and value. That you do not have to be famous to have a story worth telling.
Rita has received several grants and awards, including the BET Network Artist in Residence (2019), the Sprite X Wish Atl: The Give Back Artist Grant (2020), Southern Documentary Grant Award (2020), and the National Geographic Emergency Fund for Journalists Grant (2020).
Her photos have been featured in exhibitions all around Atlanta, including shows at the Future Dead Artists Gallery, Mint ATL, Georgia State University, and the Auburn Avenue Research Library. She has also been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Today Show Digital, Pro Publica, The Guardian, and Ilford Photo.
Although Rita will continue to craft her love letter to Atlanta, she intends to expand her work to chronicle the lives, struggles, and successes of marginalized people across the globe. Her goal is to respectfully offer people whose stories often go overlooked the opportunity to share their realities with others – and to create art that is beautiful, raw, relatable, and captivating in the process.
As a resident photographer for PICHA Stock in the USA and a winner of the 2021 PICHA Grant, she is using photography to explore “How Do We Heal” In this project, she wants to microscope in on how Black men and women choose to heal their inner trauma. From childhood, to adolescence, to adult years, people carry a certain amount of emotional baggage from past experiences. Rita believes that how we choose to heal, recognize, and deal with these emotions differs from person to person and therefore wants to document the journey to mental and emotional wellness. Rita also believes that when we address our triggers and unresolved issues we try to push away, we elevate to our best and healthiest selves.
Anna Carolina Haddad (Campinas, Brazil)
Ana Carolina Haddad graduated in journalism from PUC Campinas in 2018. She discovered photography as her passion during college and didn’t stop since then. She believes that photography is a possible political key for democratization, social justice and elevating silenced people. She also sees photography as a way to self-knowledge as well to the person who is being photographed. In her graduation work, she released the photobook “Resist Mandela”, about Mandela’s Community in Campinas (BR), and exposed the photos permanently in the headquarters of the group. Still in 2018, she participated in the exposition Manaluta in the Museum of Sound and Image of Campinas, with women right manifestation photographs. Exposed in Maloca Cultural and Art the project Lesbian Visibility.
In 2020, won 3rd place in the photography competition about COVID-19 quarantine in Brazil. She also published a photopoetry in the book “Diving” together with other 60 artists around the country also about experiencing the pandemic. Her last exhibition “Tonight I sleep with open eyes” was online through Torta, a cultural independent house in Campinas, where she investigates the violences suffered by sexism in her own body in self-portraits. Ana is a member of Photographer, a collective that brings together women photojournalists from several countries.
As a resident photographer for PICHA Stock and a winner of the 2021 PICHA Grant, Ana is setting out with an idea to make a connection from Campinas, located in the interior of São Paulo, to Salvador, in the northeastern state of Bahia. Campinas is a city with many religious houses of African origin and, consequently, it also has a lot of history with Afro-Brazilian food. It was the last city in Brazil to abolish slavery. So to make this bridge with Salvador, which is the city with the largest black population in Brazil, according to Ana would be to search for some of the history of these Afrocentric roots. Campinas is the first city besides Salvador to promote the traditional washing of the stairs, a very symbolic religious feat, where Ana sees a bridge here as well. She intends to tell the story of a chef from Bahia living in Campinas and looking for a restaurant in Salvador to make the connection.
Geovana Maria (Bahia, Brazil)
Geovana 25, is a Photographer, Media Editor and Marketing student living in Salvador, Brazil. She is a lover of art and nature, a creative, a communicative and is the Queen of organization. She is known by many friends as Geo, Gio, Gi or Gigi and hails from Bahia, Camaçari. She is passionate about animals and crazy about pets.
Photography entered Geo’s life as a new way of seeing the world. She started to see life from other angles, to see herself, to get in touch with her self-esteem and her emotional issues. With that, she started to express herself through self-portrait. When she started her work with photography, it was wonderful to know that through her images she could give people memories that would stay with them for a lifetime; and within reach of their hands, whenever they wanted to travel to that special moment. Her style is lifestyle photography. With this, she works with portraits, couples, families, fashion editorials and essays for entrepreneurs. In addition, she covers events such as birthdays, graduations, civil weddings, smash the cake and cultural events.
As a resident photographer for PICHA Stock, she brings her experience from working already for 5 years at Geovana Maria Fotografia. She currently dedicates herself to photoshoots of lifestyle style and cultural events.
We wish all the amazing female contributors of PICHA as well as all female photographers across the globe, a Happy International Women’s Day! Break the Bias!!!
