We are daily surrounded by smaller versions of ourselves. They are everywhere Children are the small bundles of energy, joy and frustration that fill our days. In spite of their everydayness, children remain mysterious and slightly foreign.
Adults have forgotten what it is to be a child. To think, feel and act as a child. Because, as adults, we live in a world of rational thought. But, not so long ago, pigs could fly, we could defiantly fly over the rainbow, everything was bigger, faster and stronger than us. Forgetting this has cost us much. We have lost the sense of beauty, wonder and hope children intrinsically understand.
However, I fear the cost of this forgetting is much greater for our children. Adults have forgotten how to listen because they don’t understand what they hear from tiny hearts. Children have lost their voice. We must reclaim this. And we do this by listening, by striving to understand. Who are these creatures who are so like “us” and yet so defiantly not “us”. What do they think? What do they feel?
We must give children back their voice and then we must listen.
Photography is “the art or process of producing images by the action of radiant energy and especially light on a sensitive surface.” More importantly, photography allows us to listen with our eyes and our hearts. In four-week class settings, I will be walking approximately 8 students, aged 7-12, through the topics of: beauty, texture/lines, exposure, light/dark, perspective and point of view, people: portraits and photo journalism, emotions. Thereby “equipping children with the skills and encouragement necessary to express themselves through photography, thereby allowing adults to once again see life with a child’s eyes.”
The first class will be held in July 2009 with the children who inspire me, the children of the Yankton Sioux Tribe in Lake Andes, SD. The Yankton Sioux Reservation is 64 square miles and consists of several small Native American reservation communities. Unemployment, poverty, alcoholism, and injustice all demand that we hear these children’s voices NOW, So things may be different tomorrow than they are today. I believe hope is always an option and that change is possible. And who better to remind us of this then the young, the hopeful…the child.
Please consider how you might partner in this vision to give children back their voice.
Sponsor Class financially.
- One student: $131
- Entire Class: $1,050
Donate Materials.
- Color disposable cameras (800 ASA, w/flash), 40 total needed
Support Alisa.
- Cost of lodging, food, etc for month: $1,100
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