Update for Supporters of the Project

It's been a while since I've updated you all on you on the project. I'm still here in Ghana (!!??) and working with a refugee resettlement NGO. I am not a teacher at the Gina school anymore, but I am still meeting with the students on Friday Afternoons to continue our photography classes. Last week, we had a special visit from Godwin Amazete, a Ghanaian photographer and good friend of mine, who told the class, among other things, that taking photographs was the most important thing in the world. He explained that their job as photographers is to create images, not just to record what is out there, but to invent it. He gave a humorous lecture on the importance of framing. Why is it important to get the whole body in the picture? What happens if u leave out the feet? What information might be missing then?
Well, sir, if the person isn't wearing shoes then he's poor and probably a Rasta, Aishatu answered.

At the end of the class, we took apart our disposable cameras to see how they worked. I told the students to be careful because a certain metal piece near the flash bulb battery carries a strong electrical shock. They then took turns touching it and squealing and trying to get each other to touch it and squeal--until I made up a rule: no taking apart the cameras or u lose them forever. Everyone nodded and said yes sir.

Taking pictures is an act of courage for these kids. Cameras are still foreign objects to many people here and there is a lot of fear surrounding photographs. Taking pictures is usually a very formal event. A family will prepare in advance to have thier photo taken by a professional. Everyone will get dressed up and stand in front of something significant like the family car with these lifeless expressions on their faces. After the camera flashes, everyone smiles and goes back to their daily lives. These students are flipping the script—creating images of the breathing, sweating lives of the people they know. They are out there in the markets,churches, mosques, and schoolyards with their cameras stuffed in the torn seams of their school dresses. They are learning to pick and chose when to bring their "machine" out and when to leave it hidden.

Theophilus had his camera stolen by men on motorbikes who thought it was a cell phone. They snatched it right out of his hand and drove away. I asked him in class if anything else had been taken. He thought about a while
And then said, "Yes sir, fifty thousand cedis," to which the class (almost all girls) erupted in laughter, screaming, "you lie, you don't have fifty thousand cedis!" Theophilus grinned back at the class. He is usually grinning. He likes taking pictures of himself wearing sunglasses and talking on his brother's mobile phone. His best friend is Joe, the only other boy in his class.

A few months ago, a group of my students took their cameras to a wealthy part of Accra called East Legon. Selina explained later to the class that the houses there were so nice, so they had to go and snap them and keep
them forever.

A security guard saw them walking around and accused them of working for armed robbers to scout potential targets. He detained them
and brought them home to their parents. Selina's mother, who happens to be the sister of the proprietress of the Gina School, explained everything to them---how their English teacher was an obruni and had been teaching them to snap pictures in school. The security guard agreed to let them go, on the condition that they take a picture of him in his uniform.


Despite this and other setbacks, photography is something these kids love and honestly I'm not always sure why. I can only tell u why I love what they're doing. The images they create are honest, playful, unprecedented. These kids have their own reasons for taking pictures, tucked away in the seams of their dresses. They love some pictures that I would barely give a second glance. Somewhere along the way I stopped encouraging them to make beautiful art and I'm not sure it mattered either way, because what they wanted from the beginning was to hold the picture in their hands, to have something to give away, something to hide under a mattress. They love passing their pictures around andlaughing at the faces they were making. Their friends in other classes are all jealous. What else is there in the life of a pre-teen?


Most of their early rolls were of the chores they do around the house: cooking for the family, cleaning the compound, carrying, bathing and putting to bed their younger siblings, and finally studying under dim
lights before bed. I sometimes forgot they were eleven and twelve years old.

I watch them sit around in a circle, laughing and talking, and I think there is something universal about middle school. There are those who are in and those who are out, but everybody is connected to that circle in some way, everyone is linked by their position--the powerful and powerless exist because of each other. What is perhaps different here is that these kids' sense of worth is tied so strongly to their role in their
families. Their mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles rely on them every day to make the family work and they are not left to question if they have something to offer this world. Sometimes I sit with them afte class and find myself wondering if I'm cool enough. After all, what do I know about preparing garden egg stew with boiled yams or the latest track from 2FACE the "Hip-life" singer about this Hausa girl who cooks the best Tuo Zaafi in the neighborhood.

The next step is to have an exhibition of their pictures here in Accra. The students said it is something they want to do, but they are nervous about their families coming to see what they have done. I guess I'm a little nervous too. It's usually a good sign. Next week in class, we will begin to look through negatives and decide which pictures should go in the exhibition. Godwin and other Ghanaian photographers will be key in this process. We're looking for a venue here that will donate the space and maybe some food for an evening. I'll bring the musicians, who would otherwise be sitting in my living room with
Not too much to do. It's not difficult to get these kids to dance.

After formally apologizing to the parents of the kids involved in the security gaurd incident, I asked the class if maybe we should all just take a break from the photo thing. Selina said, "No sir, we just have to
be more careful. We have to be quick."