Sunday 18 September 2011

Amazing Photography by Children (Through Their Eyes Photo Exhibit)

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!
Oluchi 6 (Our youngest participant)

Kevin 7

Ezugo 9

Ekene 9

Amira 9

Nathan 9

Anuli 11
 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. 
Getting set

Sheila Dykstra & Megan Ribbens (partners, facilitators and friends)

Sheila & Lydia Idakula Sobogun  (herein after referred to as The Lyd)

Participants start to arrive

Welcoming


We taught them that they are part of several communities

And that they have roles as children to play in making their communities better

They listened attentively

And got the picture 

Double role for Megan!

They amazed us with how much they grasped it

And asked us questions (WHAT does this have to do with photography?)

We're getting to that

Have a feel of your camera
Eunice Idakula, Sheila & The Lyd (Eunice was our camera woman for the morning)


Very interested 

And interesting children

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. 

They filled these, to help them articulate and make them put some thought into their pictures. 


Parents (Mothers actually)

Testing time

Practice time


Loving every moment
 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


Food by Oluchi

Twisted Tree by Amira

Hats Hats Hats by Ezugo

Have Faith by Ekene

Break Time by Kevin

Brightly Fading by Ekene

Night's Torch by Nathan

Protection by Amira

Relaxing in Style by Anuli

Slowly Making my Way by Anuli

Sun's Dew by Amira

Things Could be Better by Ekene

The Tortoise Trying to Hide by Nathan

The Exhibit was at Salamander Cafe No5 Bujumbura Street, Off Aminu Kano, Wuse2 Abuja

It was like the space was originally designed for us

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! 

4 comments:

  1. THIS IS HOW YOU BUILD A NATION!!!

    God bless you!!!

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  2. I totally love the idea and the pictures are amazing. Great work guys. I look forward to the next project.

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  3. I loved the pictures, I think they are amazing! And the captions showed a maturity almost beyond their age!
    I'd love to see this workshop reproduced with more children, preferably street kids. I'd be happy to help put that together.... Well done guys!
    www.chiomachuka.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Through Their Eyes II starts this coming Saturday, Nov 26 at the Abuja Sheraton. The "I am Nigeria" exhibition will be up all week, with a closing ceremony on Dec 3, from 10 to 12. Come and see what our new group of children have to show the world!

    ReplyDelete