This is one of a short series of posts in which I write about introducing kids to photography, using point-and-shoot film cameras from the 1980s and 90s, at the youth center, Le Cameleon, in Antananarivo, Madagascar. You can find previous posts in this series here and here.
Previously I wrote about how we had sent the kids away, each with a different camera, and a roll of color film. When they came back, the intention was to actually demonstrate how the film gets developed, but this ended up being logistically too challenging, given the lack of running water, and so instead I brought the equipment and explained the process. We were even able to use a dark bag I had brought along to demonstrate how the tanks get loaded to “unstick” a roll of film inside one of the cameras.
For the black and white roll, we repeated the process, and it was clearer to explain about the difference between positive and negative images using the monochrome images. Given that I had given them some less expensive “student” film to practice with, there were some issues with the results, but I was able to correct most of it using Photoshop, since the errors weren’t a reflection of mistakes made by the kids.
And here the results of week two:
Feno
Nantenaina
Hasina and Nevada didn’t show up this week. We agreed that Nantenaina’s photos showed talent and improvement. They come up a bit dark here on the blog, but we discussed how he’s paying attention to proper framing, his backgrounds, and consciously placing his subjects where he wants them. I like that he is experimenting with different kinds of subjects as well. Great job Nantenaina!
Sarobidy
Sarobidy clearly has a preference for portraits, and they are well exposed and generally well framed, though we talked about extraneous things in the edges of the photos. But she is good at capturing expressions at the exact right moment.
You can see the final installment in this series here.
Pingback: Introducing Kids in Madagascar to Photography: Results (1) | TAZM PICTURES