Photo shoot in New flats

In the past few weeks we had a few students joining our photography classes and then we had to teach them a little bit of theory before we can go out to take pictures. For this photo shoot we chose an area in Langa called New flats. I was really happy with what we came back with, and here are a few picture from the photoshoot.

Siyavuya Mangwatha 12 : A portrait.

Luyolo Lengisi 13 : A bath tub.

Mxolisi Cima 14 : Bukenya's Conner House.

Luyolo Lengisi 13 : Washing above New Flats street. 

Thank you again for visiting our blog: for more information about us please follow the link below. http://www.project-playground.org/

Exhibition in Museum of Photography in Stockholm

Left photo taken by Michelle Glória.

Right photo taken by the kids.

Taken by the kids.

On the 27th August we held an exhibition at the Museum of Photography in Stockholm, displaying “Langa: Life Through My Eyes”, a six week project made by the photography class at Project Playground.

SALSS, Swedish American Life Science Summit, is an annual conference held in Stockholm where, during three days, doctors, corporate representatives and scientists meet to discuss new innovative ways to develop products related to social and economic development in the world.

During the final day of the summit, the organizer, Barbro Enbohm, had invited us to give a presentation of Project Playground in combination with the exhibition. To us, this was an amazing opportunity, not only to share our visions and work, but also because we got the chance to present it to individuals who we really admire and respect, among these, Dr. Hans Rosling.

The day was unforgettable, and the kids’ photos were a success.

Futher information on the blog of Project Playground:

http://www.project-playground.org/en/project-playground-and-salss/

Kids Learn by Playing

I just want to thank the Project Playground staff and Gloria for the support they have been giving us, not forgetting my friend Jorge Quintao who has been an inspiration to us for the great work he is doing in Brasil.

In the past few months, we have had some drop - outs and inconsistance from the group and I was a little bit dissapointed and saddened by the fact that we were losing kids back to the streets. Other day I shared it with a friend who told me about the story of Jorge's group in Brasil (to see Jorge's project, click on "Olhar Coletivo", on "other projects" at right and below on this blog). Now, I am raring to go and make this a success.

Our aim is to allow kids to play and experiment while they are learning, by doing we will be taking them away from the streets. In the process, we will contribute to reduce the crime rate in our community and empowering our youth with skills. So they can be able to stand on their own in future and to have a dignity life.

Thanks for following and supporting us!

Siseko.

A Word From Langa

I would like to thank everyone for following and visiting our blog.

Your opinion are more than welcome. It is always a huge encouragement to know there is someone supporting you!

In this week, we took photos inside of the houses in Langa. For us, our home tells a lot about us. Our life. Our culture. Our history.

We went door-to-door. The Langa residents were really welcoming and very happy with what we are doing in our neighborhood. An old lady said that we could be the one to shed the light into the the reality of Langa. She also encouraged us saying that our job can contribute to development of the community. We are very glad to hear this words.

Let's get going!

Siseko

Life Through Our Eyes

We have been busy covered Langa in the last weeks. It is not all bad in Langa. There are positive things we can take from the township and the life in the area. We took some time to discuss how we will show this in our pictures. We decided to go out around the area to photograph interesting things wich show the good side of life in Langa.

On our first outing, we saw kids playing and we noticed, despite the lack of resources, the kids are creatives enough to make means for themselves to have fun. Then I and my students decided to take photos of kids at play.

Other photo-shoots, we also have worked on, are housing development and small businesses around Langa. The images looked really good. Soon, we are going to post some of these images.

For now, one photo of kids at play:

See you soon.

Siseko

Keep going

I left Cape Town last December. I was very happy had found Siseko, member of photography group Iliso Labantu (www.ilisolabantu.org), to continue the project.  

Uknowaba keeps going. Now, the new class has about 16 kids. 

In December, I will be back in Cape Town for the exhibition at the end of the year. 

Congrats Siseko!

Keep going!

Inviting new kids and involving the whole community in the project, the poster below was published in Langa:

Glória

New ideas for the Photo Club

In our first class after our first public exhibition (after Gloria left) was on Human Rights on the 21 March 2011 (International HR Day). We sat down with the kids and talked more about the exhibition and also discussed the way forward and we came up with other social issues that we would like to tackle in our communities and possibly the rest of the country.

In our discussion we came up with our main theme for the end of the year exhibition that we have called “Life in our World”. Basically this theme we came up with, will be focusing more on the story of Langa currently so that in future we can look back and see how much the area has improved and hopefully our pictures will have an influence on the developments that are come to the area. Under this theme (Life in our World) we will have subtitles that we will shoot under, and Human Rights was our first and we are still looking to improve what we have currently on the above mentioned subtitle - so that by the end of the year we have better images to show.

Some of the subtitles we came up with are, “Poverty, Housing and Interventions" such as project playground in Langa. We will also visit other projects of this nature and have photo shoots so that we can also document the improvements that are happening in the area. I believe not all is bad about Langa there are very positive things in the area.

Frida

Human Rights Photoshoot

In the previous week we devided the class into two groups from age 8-12 and age 13-16. One of the reasons I decided to separate the class is because we have only four cameras so its a bit of a challenge to go out and take photographs when we are a big group, and also the class will be more manageable.

I also took some time away from class with the kids in their respective groups and we went to a nearby informal settlement called Joe Slovo for our first real photoshoot - that was about human rights. Before we went out we sat and we brainstormed, talked about human right and tried come up with a way of presenting our concerpt through our photographs. I enjoyed watching the kids working hard trying to get the best out of their cameras.

We will be having an exhibition of these pictures at the St Francis hall in Langa on the 21-03-2011, There will be other activities on the day from the other programs of Project Playground such as drama, dance & music, djemba and the soccer boys will also have a thing or two to say about human rights. Please come and join us we will really appreciate your support.

Siseko

Building Stage

I would like to take this time once again to thank you for visiting our blog. We have not done much in the previous week - new students came to join our class so we had to start from the beginning again so that everyone will be in the same level.

I have been experiencing problems with attendance, and we have been getting new kids everyday, now we are looking to have a stable number of students for our program - to solve the problem I have visited various schools around the area to introduce our programme to students who are around Langa and enterested in photography.

I have placed posters around the area advertising our photography program. Please keep an eye for the posters.

For more info on the photography programe, please contact Siseko: 074550108 or 0727274700.

Thanks. Siseko.

PHOTOGRAPHY NEW BEGININGS 2011

I want to ta take this time and thank you for taking your time to visiting our blog, please keep on visiting us. Your suggestions and support is highly appreciated. It is the beginning of the year and Ukonwaba photo-club is back to work, thing are looking good and we are having a great start to the New Year 2011.

The group is looking to grow and expand more, new kids have joined the group and we had to start the photography classes from theory for those who were not with us in the previous year and of cause to remind the others that were with us. The kids are really looking forward to start taking photos. However, we could not start taking photos when we do n

ot know about the camera/our equipment and how the camera works. We had to explain the importance of knowing your camera and the use of light.

In the previous week we covered a couple of thing, including the use of light, the design elements of photography. We have also experimented with other mediums of photography such as abstract photography and I was quite happy with what the kids came back with.

The age group we have currently ranges from 8 years to 13 years old, it is clear that we will have to revisit the things we have done over and over again through out the year till we are sure that everyone understands clearly.

I have also uploaded some of the abstract photographs the kids took around the building.

Thank you.

Siseko

Photo Weekend in Khayelitsha

Two days of photo shooting in Khayelitsha. It was organized by Iliso Labantu Photo Group. It was the Tenth Flash Photo Weekend. It happened on December 17 and 18.  

Between ten and fifteen young township based photographers were busy documenting one area of Site C, known as Taiwan. They were accompanied and guided by local residents. After the photo shooting, they returned to the base to edit their work on time with Sue Johnson, Alistair Berg and another invited photographer at Libray of Site C. It was a pleasure to enjoy with them on Saturday. 

The shoot will be completed with an exhibition of some of the images in the same streets where they were shoot. It will be in this month, January. 

Alistair and Sinethemba.

Editing the work at Library in Khayelitsha, Site C.

Sue Jonhson.