Meet the Teachers
Niga Salam, Iraq
Niga Salam is a Kurdish curator, photographer, and artist working across storytelling, education, and socially engaged art. They began their career at eighteen leading an all-women photography collective launched by Metrography Agency. Their curatorial practice explores gender, identity, environment, and collective memory, with projects exhibited in Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Lebanon, and the United States, including Zozan in Vienna and the Sonic Matter festival in Zurich. Niga taught full time with Lens on Life for years, running workshops in displacement camps across the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and now oversees the program as a board member.
instagram: @nigsalam
Daniel Beloumou, Cameroon
Daniel is a freelance photojournalist born and based in Yaoundé. He studied photography at the University of Perpignan in France and completed internships at Agence France-Presse and the newspaper La Provence. He started out in law before turning to photography full time, and now covers migration, politics, health and security crises, and the environment. His work appears regularly with NGOs, the local press, and international agencies including AFP. Since 2022 he has led Lens on Life courses in Yaoundé, teaching students both technical skill and how to build a story.oung voices through photography.
Instagram: @yannelbold
Anas Al-Saadi, Zaatari Camp
GAnas Issa Al-Saadi began as a participant in a Questscope program, where he built skills in photography and content creation and found a new confidence in himself. As his experience grew, he became a volunteer photography trainer, helping young people discover their abilities and express their ideas through the camera. For Anas, photography is a way to tell stories, showcase talent, and create lasting memories, and he plans to keep developing his skills while opening new opportunities for the young people he trains.
instragram: @a.saadi.02
Erica Sokeng, Cameroon
Erica joined Lens on Life as a student and now teaches in the Yaoundé program, where she also facilitates the Canon Young People Programme. She is studying journalism at IFCPA–CRTV and holds a trilingual degree in English, French, and Spanish from the Higher Institute of Translation, Interpretation, and Communication in Yaoundé. She volunteers with internally displaced people from Cameroon's North West and South West regions, and outside photography she is drawn to hiking, music, and coaching.
instagra: @ericastaelle
Hussein Salah Yousif, Barika Camp
Hussein Salah Yousif is a photography instructor from Rojava, Syria, now based in Barika Camp near Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan. He began working in videography and wedding filmmaking in 2018, then joined Lens on Life as a student in 2023, showing his work in three consecutive annual exhibitions and earning a Canon Photography Certificate through the program. In 2025 he became an instructor with Lens on Life and Kurdistan Save the Children, teaching camera technique, lighting, and visual storytelling through hands-on fieldwork. He is currently studying Artificial Intelligence and Data Science at the University of Human Development and speaks Kurdish, Arabic, and English.
Instagram: @hsen_derk
REem Al-Omari, Zaatari Camp
Reem Al-Omari, 23, trained through the Basic and Professional Photography courses in Jordan, building skills in camera work, lighting, and photographing people, objects, and events. As her skills grew she moved from student to trainer, and now teaches new students what she learned while developing her own communication and teamwork abilities. She holds a General Secondary Education Certificate along with certificates in Advanced Excel and ICDL. She is working toward a specialty in portrait, product, and event photography, with the goal of developing her own photographic style and building a professional portfolio.
Lahbang Preston, Cameroon
Lahbang Preston is a Cameroonian photographer and photography instructor. He joined Lens on Life as a student in 2021 and now teaches in the Yaoundé program. In 2023 the peacebuilding organization Fambul Tok selected him to teach photography in Sierra Leone. He holds certificates in Peace Building and Filmmaking and is studying Directing at IFCPA–CRTV. His work focuses on documenting untold stories and preserving cultural heritage.
"Every untold story is a missing piece of history," he says.
instagram: @prestonlahbang
Corey Baron, NYC
Corey Baron is a poet and photographer from New Rochelle, New York. He studied Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University with a focus on visual cultures, alongside creative writing. He won the Epiphany Breakout! Writing Prize in Poetry and received the Judith Lobel Arkin Prize from the Academy of American Poets. Based in Harlem, Corey is the lead instructor and mentor for Lens on Life in the South Bronx, teaching in partnership with Youth Justice Network. He takes students into museums, galleries, and studios across New York City as part of their training.
instagram: @thecoreybaron
Awaz Saud, Barika Camp
Awaz Saud is an 18-year-old Kurdish photographer, trainer, and exhibition curator. Originally from Rojava, Syria, she became a refugee in 2013 and discovered photography at 13. She joined Lens on Life as a student in 2022, earned a Canon Photography Certificate, and has shown her work in four group exhibitions exploring human rights, war, and the refugee experience. Since 2025 she has trained young photographers in Barika Camp with Lens on Life and Kurdistan Save the Children. Fluent in four languages, she is building a filmmaking practice and hopes to direct short films on the refugee experience.
"Photography is the only thing that can capture the truth about what war does," Awaz says. "And at the same time, it can change what war has caused by giving refugees hope to tell their stories and heal."
Instagram: @awazzoom
Michel Basizi, Burundi
Michel Lunanga was born in Bukavu, South Kivu Province, and grew up between Bukavu and Goma in eastern DR Congo. He planned to become a mechanic like his father until 2018, when he discovered photography through the Lens on Life program at CAMME DRC. While studying computer science in secondary school, he deepened his skills and began teaching, eventually becoming head photography instructor for Lens on Life in DR Congo and lead instructor for the Canon Young People Programme. He has trained with NGOs across the Kivus and taught with Lens on Life programs in New York. Michel now lives in the United States and teaches Lens on Life's newest program in Bujumbura, Burundi, working remotely with students throughout the year.
instagram: @bmvachi