I have borrowed and adapted many photography assignments of Wendy Ewald’s.  She is an incredible photographer and teacher.  (Google her and you won’t be disappointed.)  I don’t collaborate with my students as she does; the photographs are very much their own.
 
One assignment was to have students first write about their dreams, good or bad.  Once they write a paragraph or so describing their dreams, I ask them to photograph them.  They use one another to act their dreams out in one or two frames. They can have others play the parts or “star” in them themselves.  If they are in the photo, it is their job to first compose the photo, considering point-of-view, framing, and gestures.  They then hand the camera to a friend, giving him/her directions regarding the above, and click.
 
 
Photography
It is no wonder why photography is among the most popular mediums we offer in South Africa.  Not only have our student had very little or not experience with cameras, they also have very few photographs of their own.  
 
It is pretty forgiving a medium for the beginner and our students find it very easy to express themselves through photography.
“I dream that when I wake up someone is stabbing me.”
                       Mandisi Matshaya, 8
 
“I am worried that my girlfriend will break up with me.”
                                                          -Lomwabo Oliphant
“A dog is after me and will bite my leg.”
                                                          -Andile Frans
For another assignment, students photographed emotions.  We first discussed emotions.  Then I asked students to pick one emotion and write about it.  We then met as a group again to brainstorm ways of photographing the emotions.
    “Happiness.”
 
“Fear.”
 
My students had a lengthy debate about this one.  Amanda January, a 9th grader, named “hunger” as a fear.  No one agreed until she made a speech. “...hunger can be many emotions.  When you are hungry, you are sad, confused, scared.  You are happy, maybe, when you are eating, but then you don’t know when you will eat again so you are sad.  You are mad maybe that some have food and you do not.  When you are hungry, you have many emotions, not just one.”  No one disagreed in the end.
 
This past summer, 9th graders made body maps.  There seemed to be a theme that they all agreed upon -  struggle.  I gave them disposable cameras, and a digital camera to the student who took the photos below.  They were to take the cameras home and, in three days’ time, capture more examples of “struggle.”  Here are the images by Skura.
 
 
Skura (left) came to me the day after he took these photos.  He was to return the camera to me.  He said, “John, now the people where I live, they think I am a photographer.  They want me to take pictures of them and they will pay me R7 (about $1) for a card of them.”
 
So I gave Skura the camera to take home again and printed the photos for him on a small printer I have.  He earned about $8 that day.
 
Skura’s mother died of AIDS in 2001, his father of cancer in 1999.  He lives with his aunt in one of the most destitute shack communities in Port Elizabeth.  It was created a year ago when his previous township was damaged due to flooding.  It is about a half-hour drive from his school.  He is pictured here with a new uniform and shoes provided by ArtWorks for Youth.
 
To see pinhole photographs from August, please click
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