The African Image Pipeline project was an initiative of Africa Media Online which took advantage of a funding opportunity from the European Union through Gijima KZN, a project of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development. The project aimed to create a virtual “pipeline” for photographic images from Africa to reach a global audience. Toward this end there were several major deliverables:
Input to the Pipeline
- The digitisation of 24,000 images from senior photographers and from museums and archives
- Developing and running the African Photo Entrepreneur Programme (APEP) to encourage a new generation of photographers to produce content in line with market need
The Infrastructure of the Pipeline
- The upgrading on an online media management and sales system onto which images can be loaded and then distributed to picture buyers and other users around the world
- The development of the African Archival Thesaurus and its translation into the major trade languages of Africa – Arabic, English, French, Portuguese and Swahili
Output of the Pipeline
- Setting up a network of distributors to represent the images to different markets around the world