Behind the Scenes – Jordan Photo Camp

As with all Photo Camps, the students respond to writing prompts and exercises that correspond with the discussion topics and the camp photo assignments. Below are excerpts from those writings in response to: “I remember…”, “I dream of…” and a letter to someone they love or admire. Also below are photos made by Photo Camp staff during the camp.
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Bassme: “I remember when the war started. My mother and I were sitting on the porch, I had final exams, and a man got killed in front of me.”

Aya: “I dream of becoming an active person in society, and to be able to help others. My hope is to become a successful architect, and to travel to Venice. I remember once I had one friend, but now I have a lot.”

(Photo by: Nasser Majali – Staff)

Saber: “My life’s dream is to help people. I would love to make a study about the percentage of homeless people, and to open a project for the people to be able to donate for the poor families. Since I was a little kid I dreamed that I would have a magazine to write in with my friends and the people I love about the common issues, Palestine and general opinion. We are now the generation of revenge. Everyone wants to fight with each other. Why aren’t we like brothers? Like the Quran says: ‘We are all brothers in Islam’. So why can we not live like that?”

Fatima: “I remember that my happiest days were with my father before he died, and I remember that when I was little my father used to play with me and my sisters. I remember the war in Iraq, and I see something burning in my eyes, the cars, and the homes. I also remember my cats and my sisters in Iraq. I hope that things will get better in Iraq.”

(Ed Kashi edits student work during camp. Photo by: Margaret Aguirre – Staff)

Noora: “I remember the first day I came to Jordan we didn’t know anyone, and I didn’t know the language that this country was speaking. But after living here for many years, I mastered the language, and I got used to my life in Jordan and now I am very happy.”

Mohamad: “My cousin’s car impresses me a lot, because, it is very fast, and it has a turbo engine and it has big speakers, an amplifier and two screens and a system.”

Hawa: “To my father and mother. They are the most valuable people to my heart. I love them with all my heart. I live in their shade (in a good way) and I love them. They made me. They taught me how to love and respect others. I hope for them health and peace, and to stay in a nest. I hope that Allah dear will keep them and to keep them for me forever. Thank you.

(Photo by: J Nicholas Tolson – Staff)

Fatema: “To my dear sisters who are in Iraq now, I’m sending this letter to them and wish they could come with their husbands and kids here. I love mom very much and respect her, I wish she could stay with me forever. And this letter is also for my dear father who is dead but I still feel him with me. I hope he is in heaven now. I also wish that all Muslims will be in heaven with him.”

Rashad: “I love you dad, because, you helped me and you taught me how to think about my life, my career. I know that you get tired every day so that we can stay alive, so when I grow up I am going to take good care of you.”

(Reza edits student work during camp. Photo by: Jim Webb – Staff )

Sandian: “I remember the war, and the screams I used to hear at night, they were from a child who lost his parents or from a mother who lost her children, or from a wife who lost her husband. Yes, all of this is tied to the war. From it I saw eyes filled with tears, but from this pain I found support, for hope was my title, and the light of love and forgiveness I held in my arms, so that I may finish my journey. The sentence I love and always say is: ‘From the young of the future; the little ones of the nation; the heroes of tomorrow.’”

Jordan Photo Camp

Just a sampling of the images being made by Photo Camp students in Jordan. The camp is running now until this coming weekend.

(Photo by Aya Al Ajlouni – Jordan Photo Camp)

(Photo by Mohammad Bani Hani – Jordan Photo Camp)

(Photo by Ahmad Msameh – Jordan Photo Camp)

New Photo Camp Video

I had the opportunity to speak at the National Geographic Explorer’s Symposium last week about Photo Camp. What a great experience to gain insight and inspiration from people who are passionate about making the world a better place. Please take a look at our new video, produced by Jim Webb.

Jordan Photo Camp Day 1

The following post comes to us from Margaret Aguirre – Global Media Strategist for International Medical Corps, our partner for Photo Camp Jordan.

We just finished the first day of our Photo Camp in Jordan with National Geographic.
International Medical Corps conducted one of these two years ago with National Geographic for refugee kids from Rwanda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, who were living in Uganda. (For more about Photo Camp Uganda, click here.)

(Photo Camp coordinator Jim Webb pictured here with students.)

This time, we’re working with Iraqi and Palestinian kids living in Jordan, along with vulnerable Jordanian youth.

There are about a million Palestinian refugees and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis living in Jordan, so the strain of this population influx is profound. And for these kids, who have all witnessed violence, many having lost one or both parents, an art therapy project like this provides a much-needed window into their world – for them and for us.

Having previously done the same project in Africa, I am struck by the contrast between the cultures of kids there and the kids here in Irbid, a populous town in northern Jordan with a distant glimpse of the West Bank. The 20 children we worked with today, ages 12-19, are urbanites. All had experience with cameras; they’ve either used one or own one. So they were relatively quick to grasp the technology. They’re also not as shy and reticent about taking photos as the kids were in Uganda.

(Jordanian photographer Mohammad Hannon working with Photo Camp students.)

Then there are the young girls. As a woman and a semi-professional photographer, it is difficult for me to watch a young girl whose cultural mores make her reluctant to push the physical envelope required from photography – crouching down to get a great angle, sticking the lens close into the face of a male shopkeeper, maneuvering herself aggressively around someone to get the shot. For one girl named Ayat, I hesitate to push, knowing I need to respect the way she’s been raised as a female in Muslim society. And yet, something interesting happened when I, the pushy instructor, left Ayat alone to do her thing. Away from my gazing, judgmental eye, she started maneuvering around others, taking more shots, finding interesting angles. I can’t wait to see the images she captures as the 3-day workshop unfolds.

Tomorrow, we will go out into their home environments again to shoot more photos. Then, we’ll come back to the Child Protection Society center to sit with the children, the photographers and a team of mental health experts and let the children tell us the stories behind the photos they took.

This is always the most powerful part for me: sitting with the kids to review their photos – stunning, heartbreaking, joyous portraits of their lives – and hearing the stories of behind the images.

Over the next 10 days of this project, which is funded by Australian Aid, we’ll be working with 60 kids in Irbid and in East Amman at the Queen Rania Center. When the workshops are over, we’ll have sorted through probably around 20,000 images. Each student will help us choose their two favorites for a closing-day exhibit in Amman, with subsequent exhibits around the world. The students also will receive a few prints of their photos and a CD with all of them.

But just as important, Nikon has donated cameras for us to keep at the centers so the kids will be able to continue their photography and storytelling after the workshops end.

I often think back to the kids in Uganda who participated in Photo Camp there. Kids like Theo, Joyce, Andre, Mapendo and Ester. I wonder where they are and how they’re doing. One corresponds with me quite often. She is now 18, still struggling to survive in the refugee settlement where she has now lived for many years. She tells me she still takes photos with our cameras and that it’s still important to her that others know her story. We have shown the Photo Camp Uganda exhibit at schools around L.A., and have sent books of photos and letters from the L.A. students to the Uganda students so they can share their lives with each other.

(Jordanian photographer Nasser Majali looks over images with a Photo Camp student.)

I am very aware that once I leave – whether it’s Uganda or Jordan – these kids’ stories will continue to unfold and they will continue to need an outlet for expressing themselves and sharing their experiences.

- Margaret
All Photos by Margaret Aguirre