Redefining opportunity. Meet Polly Irungu. Founder of Black Women Photographers.

Polly Irungu is the founder of Black Women Photographers, a community and online database of Black women photographers. She is a multimedia journalist, digital editor, and photographer.

Polly was a Digital Content Editor at New York Public Radio (WYNC), where she was in charge of social media for WNYC and PRX's 'The Takeaway,' a national NPR show with over 2 million listeners, pitching news stories and features for The Takeaway, and her podcast is the fourth most downloaded, among other things.

Why Polly?

I picked Polly because she Started a company that provides a safe space and opportunities for black women and non binary photographers and creatives around the world which is something that I am working towards achieving. Although we live in a time of rapid innovation and a greater appreciation for Black creatives, photography remains an industry that is dominated by white men, and men in general. Therefore, Irungu prioritizes Black women in her efforts which as a young upcoming black woman photographer is a very important and amazing platform and opportunity.

Interview;

During the interview we discussed her journey from moving from Oregon to New York to live her dream. I first heard about Polly when she was featured in a story by BBC and instantly picked my interest.

For starters, Polly is a very soft spoken person, she is really nice and we instantly connected. Overall the interview felt less like an interview and more like a conversation between 2 friends.

She grew up in a traditional African home where careers like Medicine were what her parents expected of her but she found her passion elsewhere. She got involved in yearbooks in her high school as a creative outlet and that is where she realized she really enjoyed storytelling and capturing the moment. “During my first high school job as a cashier at McDonalds, I purchased a camera. Buying my first camera with my hard-earned dollars from McDonalds is what eventually led me to the path of journalism.”

Since then, Polly completed a degree in Journalism from the University of Oregon, her work as a photographer has been published in NPR, BBC News, The Washington Post, and BuzzFeed, among many others.

Polly has spoken widely about Black Women Photographers, building communities, photography, social media, branding, podcasting, media diversity, African media, and journalism. Polly is also a Digital Content Editor at New York Public Radio (WYNC).

Black Women Photographers.

I asked Polly about what inspired her to start Black women’s Photographers and she said as she started out, she barely saw any representation of black women in the field and she didn't even know any black women photographers by name because of this. She decided to do something that would bring them together, provide a platform for them to showcase their work and to also be discovered and get hired.

Something impressive that I found out was that she did it all by herself. Building the platform, creating the workshops, managing social media posts, connections, interviews etc.

She acknowledged that it was hard because she still had a full time job as an editor which she eventually left when the platform began.

Forming connections and networking;

Seeing how fast her platform grew and how many profound photographers she managed to work with, I asked about networking and how she met all of them.

She said that her key tool to making the connections was through linked in. She acknowledged how it had helped her get in touch with people and she did note that she was not always successful but still always tried.

Achievements.

In a year and three months;

• She has built a 800+ Black Women Photographers global directory, distributed a $14K COVID relief fund, helped 100+ receive free portfolio reviews with editors at The New York Times, Nat Geo, NPR, Bloomberg, Reuters, AP, Guardian, etc.

• Hosted dozens of free events and workshops with industry leaders such as Nikon’s Audrey Woulard, Endia Beal, Pete Souza, and Amanda Lucidion. Plus, creative talks with everyone’s favorites such as Flo Ngala, Kennedi Carter, Joshua Kissi, AB+DM, Sade Ndya, and Mahaneela.

• Helped dozens of Black women photographers receive free software and training. Also, partnered with brands such as Profoto, Adobe Lightroom, CreativeLive, Flickr, Nasdaq, VSCO, Camera Bits, and more.

• And her biggest and latest achievement is that she has established a Black Women Photographers x Nikon Inc. $50K Grant Fund which is available to any black woman photographer.

• An honorable and impressive achievement that I found really amazing was they set up a relief fund and BWP Haiti Relief Print Sale raised $4,021.80 where all proceeds were donated to FOKAL @FOKAL_Ayiti, a local organization working to help with Haiti’s recovery.

Takeaways.

• Why was I interested in Polly? Because her path is similar to mine. She’s a photographer as well as a non-profit organization founder who has managed to find the balance between being a creative and a business person.

Her work has helped many photographers get jobs and funding for their work as well as helped communities and people by raising money.

• Biggest takeaway I got was that starting and running a business requires one to sacrifice some aspects of their lives in order to succeed in others.

Polly was a Digital Content Editor at New York Public Radio and she recently left the job to run BWP full time. She said she didn’t expect to be doing that so soon after starting the platform but since it picked up so fast, she was able to do so.

• Networking and forming connections does not come easy so one must be willing to be persistent to get what and who they are. According to Polly, Linked in is a very helpful tool for networking and

Insights:

My interests have always been to start a non-profit that helps creative students in Kenya and provide a platform for them to express themselves creatively.

Seeing how successful Polly has been with her platform, I acknowledge the challenges that come with starting a business and what I managed to learn was about building connections with professionals, finding the right balance and ensuring my objectives and goals are clear will help with the success of the organization.

My goals and plans are still the same and I am working towards finding more like minded people and learning from their successes and even failures. I would ideally like to work for a non profit again but this time as more than a creative person. I would like to put my strategy and planning skills to the test and social media and learn exactly what it takes to run a business, industry cultures and meet potential future mentors.

Polly invited me to talk to her any time I needed advice and ideas and help with my endeavors which I appreciated so much.