Truth With a Camera

I wanted to use this blog entry to divert your attention from my own blog to Truth With A Camera - the workshop that Josh and three other photographers from the states are running this week in Guadalajara. 10 American and 10 Mexican students are paired with various non-profits throughout the city including a school for the blind, a home for sexually abused girls, a group that aids migrants navigating by train, a home for the handicapped, and of course CODENI, to name a few. Each day a different non-profit will be featured on the Truth With a Camera blog, as well as an ever-changing and expanding gallery of student images. Before I go, an image from my walk to the workshop this morning.

Seasons Change

We are staying grounded in Guadalajara for a few weeks and it feels good. The rainy season has started, so the evenings cool considerably and the sound of rain is delightful after a 6 month hiatus. Mangoes are back in season and are cheap, delicious and plentiful. I was sighing as I whipped up a batch of guacamole with our excess of avocados, knowing that this will be a markedly more expensive venture upon return to the states.

After the influenza scare businesses are back in business and schools have re-opened after a two-week closure. People have flooded back onto the streets and many have forgone the masks. Entrepreneurs are making a killing off of selling hand sanitizer in fancy plastic bottles on street corners.

Painting classes are back in session and I am nearing completion of a third painting. I have now begun to work on a website for Kamami, as well as a site for my friend David, who is an architect.

Josh has been working hard to prepare for the Truth With A Camera workshop, which begins this Sunday. We had dinner with photographer and friend Jose Hernández Claire and his wife Nora. They were overly accommodating with tequila and lonches (sandwiches) and botanos (appetizers) as we discussed the upcoming workshop.

Kamami

In a few weeks, Josh will be involved with the running of a workshop here in Guadalajara titled "Truth With a Camera." 10 photojournalism students from universities around the U.S. will travel here and each will be paired with a different non-profit organization. They will spend the week shooting photos that will benefit both parties; the non-profit will have photos to use to use for marketing, and the photographer will have the opportunity to expand their portfolio with new work. Along with this it is hoped that the student will benefit from a meaningful and eye-opening experience in a foreign country.

This morning I had a meeting with the director of one of the non-profit organizations called Kamami, a home for girls who have been sexually abused. Josh mentioned to the director that I have been designing websites for non-profits while living in Guadalajara, and the director scheduled a meeting with me to see if I could produce a new site for them.

I was really struck by my experience this morning, beginning with the moment I entered the building. Two young girls answered the door and welcomed me into a small courtyard where there were other little girls huddled together giggling on a couch. The atmosphere was bright, and the girls I encountered all seemed happy, despite their circumstances for living in Casa Kamami. There are various bedrooms in the space and each has a couple sets of bunk beds. There is a kitchen where the older girls living in the home cook meals for everyone, and they all eat together in a small dining area. The space is not huge, but it is adequate for the 19 girls who are currently housed there. I could not get out of my mind how tragic their situations must have been, and how important Casa Kamami is for them. The director thanked me profusely for taking on this project, but after the visit today I just don't know how there could be an alternative.