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Location

Nablus, Palestinian Territories, ISRAEL / Middle East

Project Details

The project will consist of six weeks of bi-weekly photo-journalism workshops with the children of Balata camp. The workshops will provide them with basic photography techniques and home assignments to document their lives. The pictures will feed a blog before being displayed through a photo exhibition.

The goal is to provide children and youth with psychological support, skills training and a chance to communicate with their peers in other countries. It is a way for them to reach out and connect with people around the world, despite a network of physical and political barriers around them. Ultimately the project will address the need for expression felt by every child.

Photography plays many roles, as a mean of expression, as an art, or as an information or communication medium. Moreover, it is an easy and immediate technique to learn. The practice of photography will allow the children to take a different look at their community and lives, by stepping outside of their habits to document the components of living in the occupied territories. They will act as real citizen journalists, as witnesses from the interior. The use of a blog and photo exhibition is then the best way to show their reality to the outside world and to get connected to others.

The first step will consist of creating a workshop program during the summer of 2009. The program will be implemented in Nablus during October and November 2009, with a biweekly workshop. Each workshop will bring a new technique or skill, and the children will then be given assignments to fulfil during the rest of the week. They will be provided with small compact film cameras and the film will be developed and printed in a Nablus laboratory to allow discussions, updates of the blog, and the building of a coherent photo exhibition. The exhibition featuring their photos will take place in Nablus, in Canada, and France.

The success of the project will be evaluated through the pictures themselves. The aesthetic or technical characteristics won't matter as much as the intention, the message, and the story behind each picture. The pictures will show the degree of involvement from each child. The success of the blog and exhibition will be evaluated through their quality and their degree of acknowledgement. The project will take approximately 4 months to complete once funding is received.