Barnardos Project

Met up with the group who are participating in the photography project under Elaine Gansler, the Barnardos Team Leader and photographers, Julian Williams and Jackie Taylor at Rochdale Youth Centre last week. I had met most of the children and young adults who were taking part in the project already, but there were a few new faces. The idea of the meeting was to set up the lighting kit against a graffiti painted wall at one end of the room and get all of the kids to act both as the photographer and the subject. We wanted to allow them to decide who they wanted to photograph, how they wanted them to pose and to basically compose the shot themselves. The idea was that they experience what it was like to be both the subject and the photographer and compare the two experiences.

Some of the kids were more physically able than the others so we had to find the most suitable way in which to allow them to participate fully in the technical side of photography, ie behind the lens. It was mainly a case of adjusting the tripod on the camera and holding the camera at an angle so that they could look through the viewfinder in order to compose the shot. All of the children who wanted to take photographs were able to do so relatively successfully. The main thing that held them back was inexperience in using a professional camera, but with a little encouragement, they were able to communicate with their subjects and get them to stand in a variety of poses for their shots. By the end of the session, some of the kids wanted to take more photographs but time was a factor and we had to bring the session to a close.

We all gathered together before finishing off to evaluate the session. We wanted to know what the kids thought of their experiences both behind and in front of the camera. Some preferred to be subjects, others enjoyed taking the photographs and they were able to communicate their ambitions for the project and what they hope to achieve from participating in it. I have no photographs as yet to support these sessions as children are involved and I would need to get parental permission to use their images. I hope to document the sessions visually at some stage, when the kids feel more confident with me. The project is due to finish in March when the photographs taken by the group, will be exhibited.