'Some of the most sophisticated, modern and talented workforces, students and citizens on the planet – doing the extraordinary through to the mundane as part of daily life – come from Africa.'

PICHA was started by Josiane Faubert, currently the agency's Managing partner, to address the lack of representation in the visual content industry. Modern and positive images of Africans were very difficult to find. At pichastock.com anyone in need of an image can just type a keyword, find the image and if it's the right fit, you can buy it, download and use it right away. 

If you want to know more about this exciting initiative, keep reading this interview with Josiane conducted by the Fashionomics Africa team.

Please give us a short background of PICHA , how did it start and what do you do?

PICHA is a visual content provider founded on the realization that the perceptions of Africans in the world are not always the reality of Africans or black communities in the world. PICHA brings you curated, diverse Afrocentric visuals that enable brands and businesses to tell richer stories that include modern Africans. PICHA believes that original stories can change perceptions. And we are here to do just that. To bring the voices, faces and stories of modern Africa to the world and the brands we serve. While we tell stories about black communities through photography, we also support our contributing photographers. 40% of all commissions go directly back to the photographer.

What is your brand vision?

We believe strongly in the power of images to change perceptions. Our vision is to create a community of creative and to provide access to buyers in Africa and outside of the continent.

What would you say what your brand offers?

We offer curated royalty-free license visuals that can be used in advertising or in any marketing support. Our community of contributors comes from many countries in Africa and create content that can be used on a commercial basis or on an editorial basis.

Who is your biggest inspiration locally and internationally in the creative industry?

There are so many great talents in Africa we won't have room to name them all. We love the work of Trevor Stuurman, Zanele Muholi, Adele Dejak, Sarah Diouf from Tongoro Studio, Joanna Kinuthia, Rich Mnisi, Maxhosa by Laduma.

Where do you see PICHA in 5 years time?

With passion and dedication, PICHA will be your trusted platform for creative content.

How does PICHA differ to its competitors?

We are very focused, dedicated and passionate and this translates into the quality of our curation. The images we license for commercial use are checked against main known copyright and trademark assets.

What is its main selling point?

PICHA's main selling point is easy to access. In a few clicks, you can get the image that will break your next advertising campaign, that will illustrate your points at a presentation, and above all, images that are representative of your audience.

What major projects are you working on lately and what major brands have you worked with in the past?

Picha Image Use

It is always difficult to follow the journey of a PICHA image but we have had an image used on a regional Visa campaign in Ghana and Nigeria. We work with a few start-ups who have used our images for their social media campaigns, some corporations for their corporate communication.

Changing the Visual Narrative

We have collaborated with ELLIPSIS, a Financial management consulting firm to put together a campaign to break stereotypes by authentically representing Afrofemme professionals around the globe in our #MelaninModern collection of stock images.

Afrofemme /ˈafrəʊ fɛm/ adjective (informal)

- relating to or characteristic of modern women of African descent based anywhere in the world.

Skin Exhibition

PICHA Stock in collaboration with Viva Concept in Accra, Ghana, exhibited selected photographs from across Africa highlighting the diversity & vitality of the African identity at the SKIN exhibition last December 13. The exhibition featured interpretations of the African identity SKIN - what it means to be an African today. Guests had the opportunity to engage in a brief panel discussion on the diversity and evolution of the African identity.

In July, PICHA opened submissions for the SKIN exhibitions to all photographers in Africa and the diaspora, amateur to professional. The twenty selected images that were exhibited were curated out of the over 100 submissions by our panel of judges. All work was for sale and featured artists benefited from an international platform as well as commissions from every sale made of their work at the exhibitions to be held in Accra, Nairobi and Cape Town.

We see you have a new website. Please tell us more about the new functionality you have included to make it easier for your contributors and clients to shop from your website

We are so excited by this new website. This was really put together to increase the user experience of buyers and contributors. The layout is more appealing. We added a wish list feature that will make team work easier. They are also able to follow their preferred photographers. Contributors have now their own page they can share, their dashboard. The upload process is also easier now.