Washington D.C — Brown Girl With A Camera BGWAC is headed to Washington D.C the weekend of September 15-16, 2017 for their first conference MINT. MINT is a two-day conference filled with panels, workshops, vendors, an exhibition, stylized shoots, delicious food, cocktails, entertainment and much more. The focus of the conference is to celebrate, inform, collaborate and bring together women and men photographers and videographers of color to learn about key topics surrounding photography, videography, and entrepreneurship from successful creatives and entrepreneurs across diverse platforms.
Mint Con 17, is the first national conference aimed at equipping women and men of color photographers and vidoegraphers with the knowledge and tools necessary to take their business and brand to the next level. When it comes to being represented, celebrated and to be able to thrive as a photographer and videographer many creatives of color don’t have a platform where they can continue to grow their craft, learn from someone who looks like them and many times lack the help and support they need to connect and collaborate with major brands. MINT helps photographers and videographers gain that platform and support they need to flourish in their craft.
Mint Conference was created by Ruby Melton who is the pioneer behind the black photography movement, ‘Brown Girl With A Camera’. Ruby created Brown Girl With A Camera (BGWAC) three years ago upon returning from Costa Rica with a non-profit as their documentary photographer and a gallery full of images. Ruby realized there wasn’t a platform for women of color photographers on Instagram so she took it upon herself to create it. What started out as a simple initiative to shine a light on an underrepresented group of photographers and videographers morphed into a movement for creatives of color and 40,000 plus #BGWAC hashtag posts later they are hosting their first inaugural conference in Washington, D.C.
Ruby Melton, founder of Brown Girl With A Camera and host of Mint Con 17.
Early on BGWAC hosted meetups to bring the community together to connect, engage and shoot, those beginning stages took them to New York, Johannesburg, SA and Washington, D.C. From there they created the portfolio building experience and took it on tour to major cities in the U.S. as well as internationally. To date, BGWAC has hosted 19 professionally styled photo shoots for the community in 15 cities including London and Toronto and collaborated with hundreds of make-up artists, models, stylists, models, photographers, and videographers. In addition, they host their annual exhibition for artists to showcase their work in front of family, friends and the community. Last October, Ruby founded Brown Guy With A Camera (BGYWAC).
By bringing both organizations together and providing an opportunity for all of the incredible creatives within both networks to excel, she knew the next step was to host a conference for us, by us. Not only would the community finally have a space catered to the betterment of their craft but it would be taught by exceptional entrepreneurs and creatives who have paved their own way. Mint Con 17 is a two-day conference packed with a panel discussion on diversity in media, workshops, portfolio building experiences and their annual exhibition. The event is expected to have 150+ creatives in attendance.
For more information or to register for Mint Con 17, visit: www.mintconference.com