Saturday 10 September 2011

The Exhibition

We have planned an exhibition to congratulate the boys and volunteers on all the hard work they have put in over the last few weeks and to celebrate the wonderful photographs they have taken.We have spent the last few days getting ready, having the photographs printed and mounting them on black card and then the morning of the exhibition the volunteers made 250 samosas which will distribute at the orphanage.



We held the exhibition in the recreation room at the orphanage and with the help of all staff and volunteers working on the different programmes we prepared the room, displaying the boys pictures and decorating with bright streamers. It was lovely to see the boys faces as they looked round the exhibition, so proud to see their photos and their friends up on the walls. The trustee of the orphanage also attended and gave great praise to the project











After everyone had had a good look round they started to tuck in to our home made samosas. With everyone distracted we took down the pictures and created a book for each boy, with their two chosen photographs a portrait of them and their sunpaper which they made at the start of the project. Each volunteer presented this to their boys. 







It was a lovely end to an amazing few weeks. 

Thursday 8 September 2011

Descriptions

Every day we have asked the boys to choose their two favourite pictures from the session and to write a description about why they liked those pictures. Most of boys did this in Hindi, but a few decided to write in English and came up with some wonderful comments, not only about their photography but also how they view wider society. 



"I like this picture because...[it's] about Indian tradition. The Indian people come into the home [and] the shoes and slippers come off... I like this picture. This picture framing is very good." - Ashu 




"Today is [a] very good day. Today a new learning for camera. A new learn today is camera timeing set and automatic click the button. Today I catch the human being thing photo, happy, sad, etc. Photo is happy location, this photo is good framing. This picture sir is smiling face very good." - Hari Om




"I practiced catching myself in the mirror. It is in landscape" - Puran



[This] street is not complete and [there are] very dangerous holes on the street. Jumping on the street may [cause an] accident on bad street and trouble for people and wasted time. This situation in India [is] because [of] India's political man [does] not take responsibility" - Kanti


"I like this picture, it's looks on the boys swimming...the lake is very beautiful...they were [jumping from] a height ...[into] the water.! - Ramesh


The old man and the child. I think about a picture. When I was taking [this] photo [I thought that] the old man was smoking [and was] damaging his life, he has a bad habit. The man [is] throwing the bad effect on the young boy. I like this photo very much." Kanti 



Wednesday 7 September 2011

Last day of clicking pictures

The project seems to have gone by in a flash; today was the boys last day to take photos as we will be spending all of tomorrow selecting their pictures for the exhibition which will take place on Friday. The first task of the day was for the boys to take a picture of something which they felt symbolised India.


Photo by Ajit

Photo by Hari Om

Photo by Lalit

Photo by Vinod




The final photography activity for these boys was a treasure hunt. While they were busy taking their India photographs the volunteers compiled a list of objects from around the building (rain meant we couldn't venture outside) which they had to find and take a picture of.


Photo by Durga

Photo by Gajendra

Photo by Kanti Lal

Photo by Raveen



Monday 5 September 2011

Day seven - Favourites

We have noted a marked improvement in the boys approach to taking photos in the last week, but they are still struggling to think creatively about what they want to show in their photographs, so in today's activity we asked them to choose one object or scene which represented something important to them. They had to take ten photos of that one object/person using all the different techniques they learnt last week (use of colour/black and white, framing, landscape/portrait etc.). 

Below are some of the boys pictures of their favourite things. 

'The hostel'. Photo by Ashu

'Reading'. Photo by Durga

'Cricket'. Photo by Gajendra

'Shoes'. Photo by Hari Om
'Cricket'. Photo by Kanti

'Reading'. Photo by Kamash

'Food'. Photo by Kanti

'Writing'. Photo by Kanti Lal

As well as seeing a vast improvement in their ability to take photos this project is also benefiting the young people with their English. Every day the boys have to write about their two favourite photographs, some write in Hindi, but some boys are writing wonderfully eloquent pieces in English (more on this to follow). Just having to speak English on a daily basis is making a big difference, the staff from the project here in India are noticing the change.


"They have opened up a lot, they now have the confidence to speak English" - Guarav

Sunday 4 September 2011

Day six - An outing

"One day I want to be on the Discovery Channel. I love nature and I love taking pictures of beautiful landscapes" - Kantilal 


Our day started bright and early this morning, we headed out at 7:30 to pick up the boys from the orphanage and take them on a trip where they could practice everything they have learnt during the week. Amazingly all 21 boys and a driver fit in a 4 x 4 and we made our way to a local rural community.




Photo by Dilip 


Photo by Gajendra






Photo by Gameer

Photo by Lalit

After a while of taking pictures in the community we headed to a local tourist spot, a lake a few miles out of the city for a picnic and more photo practice.

Photo by Kaldeep

Photo by Kamash

Photo by Lalit


Saturday 3 September 2011

Day five - Colour

"I chose these flowers [to photograph] because the colours are so beautiful" - Hari Om


Photo by Hari Om


Bright colours are synonymous with India; ladies in vivid saris or ornately  decorated goods carriers (lorries) are often the first thing people of think of when they imagine life in India, so today we thought it was only right for the young people focused on using colour in their photographs. 


Photo by Durga


Photo by Puran



Photo by Hari Om




After focusing on colour for a while the boys experimented with using the black and white functions on their cameras and produced some lovely pictures.


Photo by Amit

Photo by Gajendra







Friday 2 September 2011

Day four - Faces


“I liked capturing the emotions” – Durga

Now the boys have had a few days of practising their technique and taking pictures around the orphanage we thought it was a good idea to have a very structured session where they have to focus on one thing, taking portraits of people which display emotion.

They started by working together in their groups with one person demonstrating an emotion such as ‘happy’, ‘sad’ or ‘confused’ and the rest of the group taking a photo which captured it. The only problem some of the volunteers encountered with this activity was that the boys couldn’t make a sad face because they were too happy!

Photo by Ajit
We then turned our attention to self portraits, the boys experiment with using the self timer functions on their camera as well as holding the camera in front of them and taking pictures from different angles.

Photo by Rajendra




In our weekly meeting in the evening the volunteers all came out with some amazing thoughts on how the project is going and how the boys are getting to grips with photography.

“It’s just amazing to how they've progressed from just Monday to now!” - Jo