Taking photographs at conference venues is a brisk business

SOME of the Dar es Salaam street photographers have permanently created in mind to do their business of photographing in places whereby seminars, workshops and big conferences takes place. Their presence can be seen mostly in big hotels and in large conference halls within the city and on the outskirts of it where NGOs and other National and International organizations do conduct their seminars or workshops. During conference sessions, they can be seen so busy with their cameras taking pictures of attendees and thereby making movement within the hall, from the high table and around where invited guests are seated as though are in a special media coverage.

A street photographer displays his photos on the ground for sale outside a conference hall at Kunduchi Beach Hotel recently.

Within few hours of their working, they can be seen spreading out their developed snap photos on the ground or on the table selling them to would be attendees of a particular function. These are sold at between Tshs. 3,000/- and Tshs. 12,000/- depending on a size of a photo. When interviewed, quite a number of them said that they could earn a substantial amount of money per day when taking photos in conferences and or at a workshop whereby most attendees likes to have their snaps for memories when they get back to their homes at the end of a seminar.

Photographing in places where conferences and workshops takes place has become a brisk business indeed. An attendee of a workshop is seen passing along while looking to see if her photo would be there to pick up. Usually street photographers do spread down the already developed snap photos for their customers to pick.

Athumani Iddi, a famous street photographer said, he makes a profit of up to Tshs 100,000/- a day out of this business if he attends a workshop compared to when he keeps moving around the streets and virtually ends up with a minimal amount of Tshs. 20,000/-per day. This is because of a limited number of customers he could fetch on streets throughout a day. Leonard Mbewalu, another photographer said, “it’s a brisk business indeed” added that ever since he started doing photographing business, has found it more profitable in conference places. Mbewalu who sometimes is hired by people in wedding parties is a professional photographer who has been doing his business now for the last fifteen years. According to him, photographing is paying well when one is hired to cover an occasion, or attending conferences.

Taking photographs in wedding parties also pays a lot

Another street photographer selling photos he had taken from participants in a workshop held at Karimjee Hall in Dar es Salaam.