Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, lies the town of San Miguel. With a population of 77,000, the local citizens rely heavily on the tourist industry, utilizing the beauty of the natural environment to harbor income in a variety of ways.
Ciudad de Angeles is a Christian children’s home for orphaned, abandoned, and abused children living from Mexico. After realizing that there were more than 1.6 million orphaned and abandoned children in Mexico (Unicef 2005), missionaries Phil and Donna Waldron created an environment where children could be cared for throughout their youth, receive a formal education, and later be assisted in establishing independent lives of their own.
Sighetu Marmaţiei, a small city with a population of 45,000 in northern Transylvania near the Ukraine border, was the site for I AM: Romania. Here, an orphanage, more akin to a foster center, is home to more than one hundred children ranging from toddlers to adolescents to children with disabilities. Sponsored and directed by SOS Bambini, an Italian non-profit organization that aims to improve the living conditions of children from birth through adolescence, the center has made great strides since 2004, when president, Silvia Scialpi, committed to offering long-term, comprehensive support.
While Milan, Italy is recognized as a world fashion and design capital with a major influence on commerce, industry, sport, arts, and media, it, like other major European cities, faces issues of child poverty, social exclusion, and problems associated with the children of parents affected by physical or mental health difficulties and alcohol or drug abuse. CAF Onlus, a non-profit organization founded in 1979 by Ida Borletti, was the first center in Italy dedicated to the reception and treatment of child victims of maltreatment and abuse.
The Barrettown All Age Primary School in Barrettown, Montego Bay was the site for I AM: Jamaica. Located on the outskirts of the vacation resorts that inhabit the northern coastline, Barrettown is one of many small hillside communities that survive on marketing arts, crafts and hand-made local products. Therefore, there are many schools and government education centers in the area to serve the growing number of children.
May in Israel is a time of juxtaposition for this tiny yet dynamic country that has been called ‘the bellybutton of the world’. The 15th of May marks Israel’s Declaration of Independence (Hakhrazat HaAtzma’ut), but considered ‘al-Nakba‘ (‘the catastrophe’) for bordering Arab countries. So, it was a poignant co-incidence that the I AM: Israel exhibition opened on this day at Tel Aviv University to celebrate the children and, symbolically, the future of the nation.
Diversity was an important aspect of this project, if the mission was to provide outreach to a true cross-section of the country’s children. Three cities, three schools and three different grade levels participated in the project that included a kindergarten group, a 6th grade class, and an 8th grade class.
Addis Ababa, a nation comprised of over 80 nationalities and 80 speaking languages, was the site for I AM: Ethiopia in October, 2010. In a country still rebuilding its identity after a tumultuous history, general support and funding for the arts is nearly non-existent due to a lacking cultural infrastructure. Yet the yellow meskel flowers were vivid and in full bloom, like the 5th grade and kindergarten girls of the Bethel Makene Yesus School and the year one children of the Melenik II Public School.
Alongside Behailu Bezabih, one of Ethiopia’s most internationally renown contemporary artists, we ventured into two of the city’s most populated public school systems.
I AM: India, completed in March, 2010 was the first official I AM: Project, after pilot projects in Paris and New York. The project succeeded in serving over 175 underprivileged children living in Mumbai and its surrounding suburbs and slums.
The culminating exhibition, featuring photographic as well as hand-drawn self-portraits, celebrated each child and brought together four NGOs who had never before worked alongside each other. These organizations continue to join forces for special events and fundraising, ultimately increasing their outreach impact on the children of greater India.
With the aim of further developing the ‘interactive self-portrait’ process after the first pilot project in Paris, children of Columbia County, NY were invited to participate in one of three workshops. Offered as part of Omi International Arts Center’s educational program, children gathered in the Charles B. Benenson Gallery to take turns clicking their own photos and making self-portrait drawings.
After teaching a digital photography class to elementary school children, one thing became clear – kids wanted to see themselves in pictures in any way, shape, or form. The stranger, the sillier, the closer, the better. The self-as-subject-matter became as much about art and identity, as it did about play, and the intrigue of looking at yourself in a kind of ‘magic mirror’. Watching the process, it was apparent that this kind of photography might be as integral to growing up as learning to swim, riding a bike or reading.
With the goal of offering an individualized experience for each child, the ‘interactive self-portrait’ is a guided and carefully-crafted vehicle for self-expression. After participating in an introductory workshop that includes elements of art-making, play, music, and movement centering around the notion of identity, children are invited to make their own photographic self-portraits.
Using a high-resolution camera mounted on a tripod and a remote control, each child is given free reign to snap several pictures, as they play with different expressions and experiment with the seemingly magical technology. As the facilitator of this process, my role as an artist is to follow the lead of the child, to sense and encourage their emotional responses as they ‘click’ the image. As a child moves within the frame, I collaborate by making compositional choices that compliment his/her actions.
An intimate and dynamic process, the activity plays out like an unrehearsed dance, yielding a unique performance each time. In the end, success is often found in achieving the perfect balance between a spontaneous gesture and a visually discerning decision, all in an instant.
With the goal of offering an individualized experience for each child, the ‘interactive self-portrait’ is a guided and carefully-crafted vehicle for self-expression. After participating in an introductory workshop that includes elements of art-making, play, music, and movement centering around the notion of identity, children are invited to make their own photographic self-portraits.