Gbagyichild Entertainment organised a photography exhibition featuring the works of 7 children aged 6-11 in July of this year (2011)
The project had been in my head for about 4 years and i finally got release after i spoke to Sheila Dykstra and Megan Ribbens. Together we designed and planned the entire project and carried it out with no aid or sponsorship. We are in so much awe of the outcome of this project and would like to share it with you.
Meet the participants!
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| Oluchi 6 (Our youngest participant) |
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| Kevin 7 |
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| Ezugo 9 |
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| Ekene 9 |
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| Amira 9 |
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| Nathan 9 |
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Anuli 11
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We had a workshop to teach them 5 basic elements of photography:
Filling the frame, use of perspective, rule of thirds, point of interest and use of light.
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| Getting set |
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| Sheila Dykstra & Megan Ribbens (partners, facilitators and friends) |
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| Sheila & Lydia Idakula Sobogun (herein after referred to as The Lyd) |
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| Participants start to arrive |
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| Welcoming |
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| We taught them that they are part of several communities |
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| And that they have roles as children to play in making their communities better |
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| They listened attentively |
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| And got the picture |
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| Double role for Megan! |
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| They amazed us with how much they grasped it |
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| And asked us questions (WHAT does this have to do with photography?) |
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| We're getting to that |
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| Have a feel of your camera |
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| Eunice Idakula, Sheila & The Lyd (Eunice was our camera woman for the morning) |
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| Very interested |
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| And interesting children |
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| So we taught them that pictures can be a tool, and a voice to communicate what they feel about their society, and how they could make it better. We discussed the types of pictures we take, and why we take them. I found it amazing that they grasped the concept of pain at such young ages. |
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| They filled these, to help them articulate and make them put some thought into their pictures. |
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| Parents (Mothers actually) |
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| Testing time |
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| Practice time |
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Loving every moment
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After the workshop, we sent them home to take pictures and after two weeks (and a lot of motivation) here are some of the impressive and amazing pictures they took! (I promise they took these!) They also NAMED their pictures- by the way
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| Food by Oluchi |
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| Twisted Tree by Amira |
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| Hats Hats Hats by Ezugo |
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| Have Faith by Ekene |
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| Break Time by Kevin |
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| Brightly Fading by Ekene |
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| Night's Torch by Nathan |
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| Protection by Amira |
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| Relaxing in Style by Anuli |
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| Slowly Making my Way by Anuli |
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| Sun's Dew by Amira |
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| Things Could be Better by Ekene |
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| The Tortoise Trying to Hide by Nathan |
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| The Exhibit was at Salamander Cafe No5 Bujumbura Street, Off Aminu Kano, Wuse2 Abuja |
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| It was like the space was originally designed for us |
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| We Loved It! |
The exhibition ended with an awards ceremony where the participants received awards for their hard and amazing work. We hope that for the next workshop, we can have cameras to give the children so that we can work with children from different areas of the society. We are also exploring the idea of using photography and the arts as "creative therapy" for hurting children. Details of our next project will be available soon. Thanks for stopping by!
