Camp initiative gives frequent subjects chance to frame images

Apr. 10, 2007- A group of professional photographers has launched a project to help young residents of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon release stress and learn communication through the art of photography. The project is the brainchild of AFP photographer Ramzi Haidar, who, after spending time in Baghdad where children were continually photographed as evidence of misery, felt it was time for the children themselves to take control and show the world through their eyes.

"I was seeing children in the streets [in Baghdad] and I felt sympathy toward them," Haidar told The Daily Star. "It came to my mind that we always search for children to portray their misery. So why not give them the opportunity to portray their own agony by taking pictures of their daily life and surroundings? ... They are always are seen in pictures so why not give them the opportunity of letting them be this time behind the camera?"

Haidar, along with other members of the Lebanese-based organization Image Festival Association: Zakira, is in the process of visiting camps across the country in order to distribute disposable cameras to approximately 500 children aged 7-13. The group is currently wrapping up work in Tyre and plans to visit the Beirut-based refugee camps in the coming few days.

"Initially we visit the camps and give the children a drawing test," explained Elsie Haddad, another photographer and member of Zakira. "Through the drawings that the children produce, we examine how they compose their drawings, and the colors they use before deciding who should be involved."

The group does not only choose children who attend school. They also approach children who work jobs in order to obtain a wider variant of talent and expression in the photos.

"We are giving the children an opportunity to express themselves through images. This also allows us to witness how innocent children portray their surroundings ... We hope to give them the space to explore their abilities and talents," said Haidar.

Project organizers said the age group was chosen because the children's innocence and spontaneity were still intact.

But Haddad said that despite their innocence, the children draw harsh portrayals of the destruction and stress they live through every day.

"Their use of color and the images they draw show that violence does exist in their minds, and that they have been directly affected by the Palestinian issue, and the war," she said. "We hope that this will help them get over what they are currently living, and give them something new to open their minds - something they never thought to use before."

Haidar expressed similar hopes for the project.

"The situation of the Palestinians is very bad in Lebanon, and everybody knows that they are suffering," he said. "The Palestinian children grow up with the hope that they will one day go back to their homeland. This hope grows with them but soon they will discover the difficulties surrounding them. We hope that the images produced will be an expression of the things buried inside them."

The project will last for approximately six months. At the end the children's work will be gathered and narrowed down to around 100 images from 20 children. The work will be exhibited across the Middle East, Europe and North America before being published in a book. Proceeds will go to the children.

The children chosen for the project will be given the opportunity to develop their skills through courses and practice, in order to use their talent in their future, organizers said.