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FACILITATORS

Sabina von Kessel
Design and
Communication expert
Project Lead

Sabina von Kessel lived in India for more than a decade because she wanted to see the world ‘from the other side’. She learned and taught ‘Design for the Real World’ there as a designer and photographer while working in a German development cooperation project.

She later went to South Africa for such a project before ending up in eastern Germany due to the Covid lockdown. She now works at the One World Network in Rostock and lives in a village in the Mecklenburg Lake District.

Warren Lodge
LIFEbrand:
Managing Director

Cutting his teeth in communications as an advertising consultant, Warren worked nationally as an account manager in print for Media24 and Ads24, then in television for DStv Media Sales working with agencies and blue-chip clients. 
 
After obtaining postgraduate qualifications in Media Management from AAA and an Honours degree in Branding from Vega, and with 10 years’ experience in media, he started LIFEbrand, a communications agency, which he has run for 10 years. 
 
Currently, he serves on the Vega advisory council and the Business Advisory Board for social enterprise, GANGSTAR Cafe’. LIFEbrand works exclusively with brands driving positive change, helping impact non-profit organisations and corporate CSR departments to professionalize and amplify their brands. 
 
Rimichu Vitu
Photographer

My name is Rimichu Vitu; I moved to Cape Town, South Africa, with my Dad and younger sister in 2000, originally from Angola.

During my childhood experience, I lived in a children’s home for 13 years and then had to leave when I turned 18. The whole transition of moving out was a bumpy ride after having had so much support during living in the children’s home. 

I took it upon myself to learn as many skills as possible, including teaching myself to draw, dance, graphic design skills and photography. After moving out of the children’s home, I had to make ends meet with limited resources and make use of what I had at the moment. 

I had my cellphone, which I used to kickstart my photography journey. I took photos with my phone almost every day just to keep the desire and hope alive. I received an Internship opportunity with Mamelani  as their Social Media Marketer, and at LIFEbrand in the filming industry.

Ever since lockdown, I’ve prioritised using this opportunity to polish up my photography and filming journey with a camera that Mamelani had available for me to use. I’ve been walking the streets of Cape Town, randomly taking as many photos as possible. I’ve started my own photography journey official the beginning of 2023.

Photography makes me so much more observant and aware of the wonderful little things that surround me each day. I notice things like light, shadows, patterns, frames, and colours that I can use in my pictures. More importantly, I notice meaningful things like connections, expressions, gestures, feelings, and especially the small mundane things that I want to remember. It has even gotten me to enjoy things that I didn’t really love before, it helps me understand my relationship with other people, I am taken away from the day-to-day interaction.

Taking photos really allowed me to take time out and use it as a form of alternative therapy to help overcome anxiety and depression. 

Natalie Sternberg
As We Are: Photographer
My photography practice is two fold. 
 
As We Are is a socially aware photographic practice aiming to use the lens to empower and reframe stories. Photography can be a tool that reaches farther and deeper to challenge identity and community. 
Within As We Are, I facilitate, teach and mentor at various levels collaborating with groups and individuals, social enterprises and NGO’s. I also photograph authentic life stories where the images are utilised to heal and reframe.  
 
As Natalie Sternberg the photographer, I am commissioned by companies & magazines to shoot commercial projects within architecture and urban spaces. I also work for NGO’s and production/media companies documenting projects and events that lie within the realm of social and environmental justice. My personal projects focus on decolonising the lens by giving visual voice to the often unheard.  
Helga
Facilitator

Als Lehrerin bin ich an vielen künstlerischen und literarischen Projekten mit Jugendlichen beteiligt und organisiere Ausstellungen und Schreibwerkstätten. Seit mehreren Jahren lebe ich in der Mecklenburgischen Schweiz, wo ich auch beim „Moortheater“, einem mobilen Landschaftstheater, mitwirke.  Das Projekt mit Sabina von Kessel hat meinen Blick auf die Alltagswelt der Menschen in Delft und Malchin geweitet. Ich fühle mich meinen Kolleginnen und und Kollegen in Südafrika sehr verbunden. Dankbar spüre ich, dass die portraitierten Berufstätigen und die Großeltern auf beiden Seiten mit ihrer Warmherzigkeit und Lebenserfahrung das Projekt bereicherten. Die Jugendlichen fotografierten die kostbare Ressource Wasser so, dass sich Witziges und Sorge um die Natur mischten. Wie wichtig sind Perspektivwechsel, auch die Aufarbeitung der Kolonialgeschichte! Die Kontakte über das gemeinsame kreative Erleben des Augenblicks! Ich bin überzeugt, dass alles, was wir mit vollständiger Liebe tun, gut wird.