"Lahza/ Zakira's first project featured on CNN."
Related Article:
It all started with paper and crayon: The children of the Ain al-Hilweh camp drew friendly-faced men bearing arms. The children of the southern refugee camps drew the coast, the boats and the fisherman. And the children of the Bekka refugee camps drew pictures of the snow-capped mountains. Though each picture expressed unique aspects of each camp, one icon brought them all together: the Palestinian flag.
“This is how we connected with them,” said Agence France Presse photographer Ramzi Haidar, one of the organizers of the Lahza (“Glimpse”) Project, a non-government initiative that offered 500 children from Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian refugee camps the chance to express themselves through photography.
“We moved from the pictures to the concept of photography. We wanted to see how the children thought, how they perceived their daily lives inside the camps, and how they would then allow this to translate into an image,” explained Haidar.
The transition was natural because the children already had a defined notion of the importance of the picture: those of Palestine, as depicted through the television images, newspapers and tales told by their families. “The image is a concept deep in their heart because it is the only way they can connect to their homeland,” said Haidar.
To carry out the project, 500 children throughout the camps were given 500 disposable cameras, trained in how to use them and then asked to take pictures of their lives: images that upset them and that made them happy. Some children kept the camera for up to a month, capturing pictures that professionals ordinarily yearn for. “The key,” explained Haidar, “is that every picture has a genuine story behind it, a story told by the photographer.”
Day and night for three months, Haidar and his colleagues went through some 13,500 pictures, painstakingly examining them until the number was filtered down to just 141. Those photos were displayed at an exhibit launched last week at Hamra’s Masrah al-Madina.
The Zakira - Image Festival Association, the Lebanese NGO that organized the project, worked with the help of the General Federation of Palestinian Women in Lebanon, assorted journalists, artists, lawyers and some refugee camp associations. A book, Lahza, was launched at the exhibition and presents an eclectic and moving assortment of the 141 photographs. The proceeds of the project, if any are reaped, will go to the creation of a photography training school for children.
The roots of the Lahza project go back to the July War of 2006 and the fall of Baghdad in 2003. Amid the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, Haidar and a small group of photojournalists began to form bonds with the orphan children who had been forced onto Baghdad’s streets. It was then that they had the idea that the children themselves should be trained in using cameras.
“I saw the rubble in Baghdad, in the South and in the camps,” said Haidar, “and I had previously thought, [in Baghdad], that photos must be products of not just environments, but of people of that environment.”
When Haidar came back to Lebanon, he brought the idea with him. Ironically, the Nahr al-Bared conflict of 2007 slowed the project down, making it difficult to work with refugees.
Lahza’s goals were ambitious, admitted Haidar, but they were achieved nonetheless. “We wanted to deliver the message of what was happening in these refugee camps,” in a way that no photographer could, he explained, “because the children do it with more daring, more courage and more honesty.” The response was more than could be hoped for: hundreds of people visited the exhibition, and up to 300 books have been sold.
Moreover, Haidar said, the exhibition showed that the camera is a tool intended to be used by everyone. “People provocatively asked me, ‘Why Palestinian children?’” Haidar lamented. His response: “We view them as children first, and as Palestinians second, through their pictures and their photos.”
Practically speaking, the fact that it was taking place inside the refugee camps actually facilitated the progress of the project. Whereas in some areas in Beirut, for example, the permission of numerous authorities would have been required, it was relatively easy to get permission to distribute the cameras to the children in the camps. They were eager, Haidar explained, because “they are always looking for people to tell about their cause, and they are accepting of the other.”
The exhibition itself highlighted the importance of fostering a “culture of the photo,” something that is glaringly missing in Lebanon. “We created a space in which the image and its meaning could be discussed… where the picture becomes part of the culture and does not simply reflect it.”
And in doing this, the Palestinian child, so often shunned or ignored by the rest of Lebanon, was presented with the rare opportunity to communicate fears and hopes through glimpses of their daily lives – free of bias and full of truth.
The Zakira-Image Festival Association plans to organize future photography workshops for amateurs and professionals to spread interest in photography, and to establish a technical center to teach photography to children, thus helping to emphasize the importance of photo-journalism in Lebanon and the rest of the world. “Lahza”, which ends today, is its first project. The book can be bought through Zakira (zakira12@gmail.com) and at the Antoine Bookshop.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment