Photos from the Workshops

Durban Workshops

The Durban stint has whizzed by and I find myself back in Jo'burg and the workshops up in the Valley of a Thousand Hills are over.

The whole process was intense and exhausting - 3 weeks of solid working 14 hour days - but I learned a lot. And a big plus was working and being with Karen and NN. Workshops, training, creating an exhibition and organising an event. Here are some photos from the job.

South Africa Project

Watch the digital stories and work the Orange Farm group produced by clicking here

The Big Event

The big day arrived.....

The group were very excited and we all ran around madly beforehand setting up tables, charies etc. Despite technical problems the day went very well. Less people came than I'd thought though. I asked the manager of the venue Lovelife and he said it's always like this - parents and family just never turn up to events organised by and for their children. He said he has to go knocking on doors to make adults come. But the group sang, read poetry and danced anyway. They are going to do the whole thing again on Thursday and make sure more people come.

It was a fun hectic day all the same....

Exhibition

Suddenly we're hanging the exhibition in Orange Farm. It's been such a long but short journey for all of us. The photos look great enlarged and the group are excited.

Next Stage

The 8 digital stories selected from the group are now being worked on at WomensNet on their computers there. While that's happening we're planning the event on the 2nd December when we'll showcase the exhibition and stories.

Its busy.

Hail

While the rest of the group are working on their stories in Orange Farm I've been in town trying to get stuff done. Except there was a power cut for several hours today probably because of the rain. Well not rain exactly - I got hit by hailstones when I went out earlier. Rather confusing.

Workshops

The workshops are now focusing on digital stories - we've called in some help in the form of Moshe, Matthews and Mzukisi who are photographers and filmmakers to help with the process. It's been an exciting emotional day for the group as they begin telling stories about their life and experiences.

Group Outing

It's been a busy time for the group.

Here are photos from our outing to Jo'burg earlier in the week.
We visited Museum Africa which has a great set of exhibitions particularly the history of photography. After lunch we went to WomensNet which has also done it's own digital storytelling project. Then onto the Jo'burg Art Gallery across town. With some dancing along the way.

Cameras

The police eventually returned the cameras, after much to-ing and fro-ing.

Maggie told me about it all. The policeman wanted to take her camera and she said; "If you take my camera then give me your gun."

Apparently the policeman is now a great supporter of the project and wants updates on how we are all doing. Scared of exposure obviously.

A shift

There's been a shift in some of the group. We were discussing how it had gone during last week with their photography projects - who they'd photographed, where they'd photographed, what they'd learnt - that sort of thing.

I found myself talking to some very angry young people. One of the boys said it was all different now he had his camera and photography skills. He saw his community and the issues in it differently, in the past he wouldn't question what he saw or heard. Now he does.
Both he and another girl had been photographing in shebeens and talking to the shebeen owners who were saying they didnt have a problem with selling alcohol to people who were under 18. All that matters was the money coming in. Where was the money going - to their own childrens' education.

These two were shocked and disappointed in the adults, in their attitude to money and doing anything to get it, including ruining childrens' lives.

I got a phone call last night and today - two girls have had their cameras confiscated by the police because they'd photographed a policeman beating up an innocent man in Orange Farm. The police had seen the girls with their cameras and taken them. They have to go to the station tomorrow. I explained on the phone that if it was necessary delete the photos they'd taken to get the police off their back - then they should. It may help to make the problem go away. One of the girls said 'But I can't delete those photos - what they were doing was wrong.' She'd already told the police the same thing. It was her duty to record what she'd seen and use it.

It's an exciting time.

Meetings and Rain

It's been raining on and off all day and I cant decide whether I should get an umbrella or a mac-thing. So everything will be damp til then.

Meetings and planning - that's been the last two days in a nutshell.

I had a meeting with Ayi, Matthews and Moshe yesterday. Matthews and Moshe are two photographers who Ayi hooked me up with. They will be working as support facilitators on the project helping the group create their digital stories. Very exciting to make these connections between people. It'll also be fun working with people with so much creativity and energy.

And today I'm hoping to meet mike the Reuters photographer who is keen to participate in the project as well - running a workshop hopefully.

And lots of planning - workshops for this week, the schedule for the next few weeks.....

The Workshops....

And this is how we've been working for the past four weeks or so.

That's Anna in her church outfit looking like she's praying. She was having her portrait taken by another participant when I photographed her.

The Team....

That'll be me having lunch. Ayi thinking during a workshop, Cindy and Thoko preparing to have her portrait taken with her teddy.

Orange Farm sights

A few photos from Orange Farm snatched during workshops.

The Group in Orange Farm

This is the group of young people I'm working with in Orange Farm. The youngest is Jabulile who is 16 and the eldest is Rooi who's 33. They're all members of VRCO a community organisation which operates in Orange Farm.

I’ve been working as a freelance photographer and facilitator since 2000 or so and have had a strong personal and professional interest in Africa for many years. So when the UK charity PhotoVoice told me about a planned project in South Africa, asking if I was available, I jumped at the chance.
I’d lived in Durban in the late 1990’s just after the first democratic elections post-apartheid dismantled and Mandela had walked free. This project offered me my first return visit to the country and my first visit to Johannesburg.

PhotoVoice trains groups of people all over the world in photography, groups who are on the margins of their society – streetchildren, refugees, people with disabilities. Photography becomes a tool to tell their story to a world-wide audience and enables them engage in debates on issues that affect them.

This project runs from October until December 2006, working with young people who live in Orange Farm, a township on the outskirts of Johannesburg with a population of over 1million. The group are members of Vukuzenzele Reflect Community Organisation which works in a township that faces the challenge of 70% unemployment, extreme poverty and high rates of HIV/AIDS infection.

Their photography and stories will focus on the theme of HIV /AIDS and the issues the pandemic touches and will be collated into an exhibition to coincide with World AIDS Day at the beginning of December.

Links for more info: www.photovoice.org and www.lydiamartin.net