Giving The Voiceless A Voice

Portraits of societys downtrodden members have long been recurring subjects for legions of photojournalists. Images of AIDS victims, street children, refugees photographers thrive on capturing pictures that tug at our heartstrings.
A pair of English photographers have turned this tradition on its head. Anna Blackman and Tiffany Fairey, founders of PhotoVoice, are handing their cameras over to the very people who are so often portrayed as living on the fringes of society: homeless children in poverty-stricken enclaves, from London to Kabul.
"Were training street children in photography so they can document their own lives, their own thoughts, views, opinions," Blackman said. "A camera is an empowering thing."
"Unbroken," an exhibition on display at the Rockaway Arts Center in Fort Tilden, Queens, shows just how empowering the camera can be for those children.
The works of young photographers, ages 10 to 18, provide a unique perspective of three very different environments the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, and Ho Chi Minh City (the former Saigon), Vietnam, and the Bhutanese refugee camps of Nepal.
With training and equipment from PhotoVoice, these youngsters produced a range of images that display both the problems and joys of their difficult lives.
"The children are often attached to their lives on the streets. They have dignity," said Blackman, who came over from London with Fairey to attend the opening reception for the exhibit last Saturday.
Blackman, 27, and Fairey, 26, met as students at Edinburgh University, in Scotlands capital city, where they both studied anthropology and photography.
But neither of them knew how much their interests overlapped until each completed six months of academic field research in 1998, which saw Blackman training children to use cameras in Vietnam and Fairey doing the same in Nepal.
After returning to Edinburgh, Blackman and Fairey realized that they had stumbled upon an emerging genre, "participatory photography," that was growing in popularity among photographers, but was also sorely lacking in organization, and academic and journalistic recognition.
"There was no one umbrella group that focused on this kind of work," Fairey said.
In 2000, the pair created such a group, PhotoVoice, a London-based organization that specializes in "photographic training for people in need around the world" and has helped initiate successful training courses, or enhance existing ones, like the "Street Vision" project in Vietnam.
So far, PhotoVoice has exhibited photographs in both the countries that produced them Vietnam and elsewhere and in the United Kingdom and the United States.
The Rockaway Artists Alliance (RAA) learned about PhotoVoices work through George Carrano, a fund-raiser and exhibition coordinator for the organization in the US.
"George sent me a package of photos and blurbs, and I just thought, this is a great fit," said Susan Hartenstein, publicity director for the RAA. "Were very aware of how important it is to allow children to express themselves and tell their own stories."
And "Unbroken" does just that, making ample use of one the RAAs converted military warehouses, tucked away in a picturesque,oceanfront stretch of Gateway National Recreation Area on the Rockaway peninsula.
Street Vision
The "Street Vision" project, started by Blackman while she was in Vietnam, is now run by the Ho Chi Minh Child Welfare Foundation, and it has taught about 150 children the fundamentals of photography.
A series of short biographies of some of the participants hangs next to a wall of Street Vision photographs at the exhibition.
"It had always been my dream to hold a camera in my hand and take photographs," writes Lam, a 17-year-old who escaped the abuse of her stepfather and took refuge in a home for children. She now teaches photography to younger children.
Le Pinh Linh, 14, escaped his alcoholic father and moved to Ho Chi Minh City with his uncle, and he joined Street Vision with "the wish to capture the lives of my disadvantaged peers who have to work hard to earn a living every day."
Indeed, the difficulties of such a lifestyle come across in the exhibit. One photograph depicts a crippled child grasping a crutch with his right hand and a stack of lottery tickets with his left. "This boy faces greater difficulties than the other children," reads the caption, written by a participant, "but he must sell as many tickets for his parents."
A theme of hope and joy also runs through the photographs. In one picture, a shirtless boy stands on one leg with outstretched arms and closed eyes, seemingly on the verge of flight. It captures the "expression of freedom," writes the young artist who captured the moment.
Shooting Kabul
Last November, Fairey spent three weeks working with a group of 13 girls in Kabul, the war-torn capital of Afghanistan. Despite having lived most of their lives under the repression of the Taliban regime which virtually banned the use of photography the group amazed Fairey with its enthusiasm.
"The girls had so much spirit," she said. "They had a lot of fun with the project. There was nothing holding them back."
Ranging in age from 10 to 14, they were young enough to avoid some of the restrictions placed on women in Afghan society, and they ventured out onto the streets with a willingness to take chances, and with a focus on the themes of peace and reconstruction.
One image captures a sketch of an M-16 rifle on the wall of a partially-demolished building. "This picture should be cleaned away and there should be a pen in its place," writes the young artist in an accompanying caption. "Instead of guns, now the Afghan people should be using pens. They should be studying."
Fairey and Blackman are already discussing the possibility of bringing PhotoVoice to the streets of Baghdad, initiating a project that would enable American and British children to exchange photographs with Iraqi children.
For now, however, they are promoting the considerable body of work they have already encouraged children from around the world to create.
"Unbroken: an exhibition of hope and determination" will be on display at the Rockaway Arts Center until June 29. Gallery hours are Saturdays, from 12-5 p.m., and Sundays from 1-4 p.m., and by appointment. For more information, visit the RAA Web site, www.rockawayartistsalliance.com , or call (718) 474-0861.
To learn more about PhotoVoice, visit their Web site at www.photovoice.org . The organization accepts donated photographic equipment, new or used.