Legendary snapper Robert Frank said the one thing a photograph must contain is the humanity of the moment and its wisdom that was well-heeded by the youthful participants in a pioneering arts project in Algeria’s Mediterranean port city of Oran.

Algeria’s Association Santé Sidi El Houari (SDH) teamed up with the United States embassy to launch Ibda3com, which began in March 2017 and culminated in Oran’s inaugural Short Film and Photography Festival in January.

“Ibda3com aims to promote and empower youths on civic engagement, through audio-visual artistic expression, information and communication technologies and socio-cultural activities,” said Fatima Zohra, general secretary of SDH, which was founded in 1991 to integrate young people into society and promote cultural heritage and environmental protection.

The project certainly seems to have achieved its aims, with over 300 Algerians aged 16-35 learning essential creative techniques, from photography to animation, film-making, sound recording and mixing, infographic design, website creation and social media. Nearly 60 artistic associations devoted their time to support Ibda3com.

Around 3,000 people attended the three-day Oran festival, which exhibited the best 20 photographs and 10 short films from the project’s more than 200 entries.

A judging panel including film director Mihoub Hernouf, actor Mihoub Hernouf and photographers Abdelhamid Aouragh and Fethi Sahraoui selected the two best films and short films. “It was an amazing experience,” said Omar Dib, 27, winner of the first prize for photography for an incredible image of a Tuareg tribesman dancing. “I tried to participate with my best work.”

Dib took his winning photo in Djanet, an oasis city in Algeria’s desert over 2,000 kilometres south of the capital Algiers, during the Sbiba festival. Every year, Djanet hosts the folk dancing event, which brings together Tuareg tribes of the region to celebrate an ancient peace that ended brutal inter-tribal fighting.

“The moment when I saw this boy, I took the picture,” said Dib, a metallurgy engineer from Algiers who specialises in landscape photography, particularly Algeria’s deserts.

He has since started hosting his own photography workshops for young people. “When I was five, I started to draw. Later, I learned calligraphy. When I was a student at university, I learned Photoshop and design. After that, I discovered photography and started to take expressive pictures,” said Dib, who hopes to open a commercial studio in the coming years.

Said Manseur, who claimed second prize in the photography competition, heard about Ibda3com through Facebook.

“The best part was meeting other photographers and learning from them and their experiences in the industry,” said Manseur, 20, who specialises in street photography and is now a professional photographer and filmmaker.

“A photo tells a story without needing any words and shows us what we don’t necessarily see at the time,” said Manseur, a native of Mascara, a small town in Algeria’s interior.

Manseur’s prize-winning photo shows a farrier putting a shoe onto a horse in an Algiers market. “This was a profession that had an important place in society and in Algeria we would call them “Marèchal”,” said Manseur. “When the horse was the main means of transport, you would see them at work in all Algerian and Arab markets, but the profession has gradually faded into obscurity. It’s also a very difficult and highly-skilled job.”

The U.S. Embassy’s Partnership Initiative for the Middle East (MEPI), which helped stage ibda3com along with SDH, is a regional program that aims to helps citizens in the Middle East and North Africa develop more pluralistic, participatory and prosperous societies.

As well as staging the festival, which also featured workshops on acting, semiology and travel and documentary photography, bda3com also aims to help 10 young people create micro-businesses that use their new-found skills. The project also has permanent foundations. “We have built an audio-visual centre equipped with professional audio-visual equipment that will ensure the (continuation) of the training,” added SDH’s Zohra.