Kids with Cameras: Zambia

Great news!

Both Smithsonian Magazine and the Kids with Cameras have chosen to feature our Chishawasha Photo Workshop nationwide in print and online. Our own online Students’ Gallery will go live in November 2007 to compliment these nationwide publications. The student’s photographs will then also be available to a general public as high quality photo art via secure online purchase. Until then they are to remain unpublished. If you can help promoting our project or are professionally interested in a private viewing, please don’t hesitate to contact me… we have an exhibition proposal package ready for presentation and are interested in establishing contact to exhibition venues.

Meanwhile - You can already get to know my students and see a project trailer with my own photography. Now on our new project website linked below. Starting November 01 it will also host the Students’ Gallery.

Please visit our project web site at:
http://www.tribeofman.com/zambia

Enjoy a beautiful summer while it lasts!
Greetings, Klaus Schoenwiese

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Hello - meanwhile from South Africa,

The last days running up to our Chishawasha photo show were extremely work-intensive, but also extremely rewarding for all of us involved. We mounted over 250 photographs, many of them in thematic groups of 10, 6 and 4 photos per student. The themes reached from the kid’s personal background to weekend excursions to visual explorations of their close and seemingly familiar surrounding. Two more assignments (one still pending) were not part of the show but may yield still more interesting material. I’m proud to report the show looked beautiful by all standards and was a big success with everyone who saw it. Once again I can’t thank enough everyone who made this project a real joy, especially the Chishawasha staff and the teachers who were willing to accommodate my students’ extensive 3 week extra-curricular schedule.

We were incredibly lucky to have a large class room available at the Chishawasha school that was currently not in use and can now seriously compete with any Chelsea gallery in its beautiful simplicity and good natural light. And no offense to Chelsea art lovers - our audience was even more special: The Chishawasha school not only educates about thirty of its own residential orphans, but also about 45 village kids who largely live close-by. It’s safe to say they never saw anything like it and were accordingly excited (see our updated website photo at http://www.tribeofman.com/zambia ). As the show will remain installed for at least a couple of months it’s also safe to say that more locals will come to see it.

At the end of this (for me) very, very long day I enjoyed a one last communal dinner of enchima with chicken and vegetables, and then I was seen-off by my kids with an extremely entertaining (and very elaborate) living room teenage dance show followed by a very touching farewell medley of songs and poetry. I have to admit I had a real hard and emotional time getting on the plane - it just seemed way to early to leave but big things (…literally, as my wife’s belly is ever expanding) are awaiting me at home.

So now that I’m gradually making my way back to NYC I can’t wait to get going on phase three of this project, which should ultimately - after some tight editing and hard decision-making, bring high-quality artwork to you and to a general audience. Along with it we’ll try to bring you closer to life in Zambia as seen by our most lovable and individually talented Chishawasha students.

These project emails were not targeted a general public but are really meant for friends, colleagues, supporters, fellow educators and a few individuals who don’t know me but may find my first-hand accounts interesting enough to add potential value to this or to one of their own projects. As the workshop phase of this project is now winding down, my sometimes half-baked workshop reports will come to an end and hopefully give way to a well-suited effort to publish photographic results and tell a general audience about our workshop’s wonderful kids of Chishawasha. We’ll let you know eventually how that’ll go.

Greetings,
Klaus

On a foot note:

One previous statement of mine in regards to creativity should be clarified. Of course I would never question the Zambians’ collective or individual potential for creativity. I was however reflecting on real life circumstances I witnessed first hand. It is rather plain to see that too many Zambians are forced to struggle extremely hard just to meet life’s most existential challenges. Of course that too requires creativity - but not necessarily a kind that’s playful, exploratory and critical by nature. Zambia has many amazing cultural achievements to offer, including areas of individual artistic self expression that flourish in most enviable ways (just consider our kids dancing for example). One often encounters outstanding individuals here in Zambia and most of us foreigners will find Zambians to be of exceptional warmth and social graces. But as different cultures meet and try to work with each other, some ongoing comparison and self-reflection is unavoidable. Most of us are probably somewhat aware that - for example, ancient Egypt’s amazing and unmatched creative achievements came at a high price, in many ways being the product of most brutal oppression experienced by countless individuals in servitude. Or lets consider traditional arts and crafts when they fall into quasi servitude of a global tourism industry. It’s certainly great to be able to make a living with it but it won’t automatically benefit the quality of a nations traditional artwork. Or lets look at our own society: Awareness is finally spreading of the real term consequences our biggest ‘creative’ export - the global economic model, brings to countless far-flung individuals, at times even to whole nations who will likely never be the ones who benefit. So yes - any of my statements about Zambia should be seen in relationship to those individual- or society traits I came to pursue, recognize, criticize or value within my own cultural and personal background. I don’t intend to pass judgement on Zambia but simply reflect on things as they occur to me being the outsider I am.

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Hello one more time before my leaving Zambia,

We had a whirlwind week so far and here are some of the highlights: On Saturday we visited a small fishing village way down a dirt road along the river. We bought 60 kg of farmed fish, fetched alive from the pond by a standby crew of fishermen who pull a long net in a wide arc through the pond, and then narrow it down until all the fish are pooled, picked out by size and then put into buckets by the handful. We then rented a longboat with two men paddling our rather giddy party across the vast river, along some very idyllic sceneries, past a river island village with tall palm trees and a tiny mission church supposedly run by an Italian priest. Kids were waving at us from the distance, probably thinking I must be a personal friend of the priest approaching (… talking about missionary cliches - I guess they still exist in a few places). On the same day in the afternoon, we visited a close-by game reserve on a fancy hotel’s vast grounds. The manager there is on the Chishawasha local board of directors so the kids get a deal coming here every now and then. We took a short but fun game drive on an open multi-seat range rover, saw Zebras and Gazelles from fairly close, and a tamed Elephant . They all can only have so much privacy due to a high voltage fence circling the property… one that on the upside also protects them from their one remaining area predator (i.e. humans). Again the kids got a mayor kick out of being in a fancier setting; they hung out at the Hotel pool side and pretended to sip tea from safari-looking cups that weren’t bussed as of yet by the staff. We returned after sunset and I was pretty wiped by all the travel following my somewhat restless previous coughing night.

On Sunday I just had to take it a little easier, still trying to recover from my cold and so I decided to skip the 7.30 am church run and rather be rested for an afternoon of tying up loose ends. I had a couple more student portraits and interviews to do, a calendar photo to take, things to organize, digital files to process etc.

Early on Monday I revisited the sad market - this time by myself and with a Polaroid camera and my rather slow Rolleiflex. This time around I had a good time and people were not sad at all, really getting into the free Polaroid kind of thing. Unfortunately it quickly came to a point where I found it very hard to ever make it to the subjects I really wanted… Polaroid is very great in a mellow environment but can become counter-productive in a high density situation. Oh well. I tried and if I had time to go again everyone would be happy to see me by now.

Later on Monday we had a very well-conceived students-turn-teachers session, and on Tuesday a workshop student assignment to document a day in the life of Chishawasha, results still pending. Today it’s just getting ready for the exhibition on Thursday. I’ll have to write you more in detail thereafter.

So busy now that it’s hard to believe I’m leaving already on Friday. I’ll definitely miss the kids and the place a lot!

Greetings,
Klaus

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Hello again, more than half-ways through the workshop,

Yesterday I worked very hard doing individual portfolio reviews, despite a harmless but unpleasant flue everyone around here currently seems to come down with… I guess it’s the kindergarden syndrome. The better part of this week is spent on pulling material together for a final show next Thursday. It should look pretty nice considering that we will almost have a real gallery - a currently unused classroom with good walls and fairly good light. Considering the workshop’s head count of twelve I doubt each student can show more than ten or fifteen pieces. Editing is very time-intensive given that most of the students still have a hard time expressing their likes and dislikes. Not rarely do I like best what they cast aside, so as a curator of our final show I have to balance my students still uncertain preferences with my mission to expand their visual vocabulary. This is also important because we were able to hook up with the US-Mission’s American Center here in regards to a future exhibit at Comesa building in downtown Lusaka and with some luck we may well have a gentleman come and see our little show.

The last assignment (As close as it goes: Man-made things photographed close up) was very opportune because it yielded a large amount of photos that were finally not just about who’s in them and mainly about their photographic impact. So the kids started to experience that a photo can be a desirable or at least interesting object in itself, not just a flat representation of its original content.

I knew when I came here that I was somewhat taking a chance since Zambia, pragmatically speaking, is not quite what we would identify as a fertile ground for creative minds. Children are taught to respect their elders above all and personal ambition can quickly become a downright foolish undertaking. Considering the country’s stifling bureaucracy and a systemic meritocracy, Zambians are very self-restrained. At the same time, Chishawasha itself is neither located in a colorful urban setting nor would it likely quench a tourist thirsting for an ‘Out of Africa’ clichee. But after having spent time with my kids and seeing their appreciation, I definitely feel it was the right place to come to. I also feel good about the results we’re getting. But there is still a lot ahead of us. More portfolio- and preparatory meetings tomorrow, along with taking simple portraits of my students, an excursion to a fishing village, leaving at 6am on Saturday. On Monday my students will then switch roles and become teachers to their peers and on Tuesday we’ll have a big shoot-out when those other kids finally get their turn to photograph. So you can tell I got my work cut out - to a point where I start doubting to ever find a chance to shop for souvenirs…

That’s it for today and may well be the last update before completion - a very tight week ahead of me. I also can’t wait to soon introduce the kids properly to the outside world! Wish us luck!

Greetings,
Klaus

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Hello once more,

After a few eventful days, here’s another update. Things are in full swing and going well, even if at times I’m having to reassess my ideas; we finally had our first more intense excursions into the local culture and both the kids and me started to experience the unavoidable challenges that come with treading on new ground…

The first couple of student assignments were mostly designed for the students to get their feet wet -they were based at and around Chishawasha. The results surprised me pleasantly, both in regards to the student’s work and the very good quality of the local processing. On Friday we had our first excursion, aimed at closing in on subject matter that goes beyond shooting familiar faces and starting to photograph in public. And boy did we have public or what, at the Hilltop open air market along the highway into Lusaka (also dubbed by Mary as ‘the sad market’…). I have to admit I hadn’t personally checked out the market upfront. When we arrived there, we being twelve kids with cameras and two white guys in tow, we quickly realized that it was very hard to have eyes on each other in this maze-like market. We were also almost instantly pestered by a couple of drunk-eyed guys who, after not having much luck with us, instructed our kids to better not to hang around these white-skinned blood-sucking no-good Satanists… Now I for my part am somewhat used to the idea of dropping into a place as an extra-terrestrial, and luckily I don’t understand the colorful details of what people may share amongst themselves about me. In fact, as a ‘Muzungu’ in a sea of black faces I didn’t expect anything less and I’m usually able to create my own comfort zones by quickly befriending the more kosher-looking individuals I can spot.

However, most of our kids - locals that they are, hearing what they heard, felt quite uneasy in their new ‘Satanists by association’ role in this otherwise not unfamiliar place. Even though our newfound label put us in just the right place considering that a mayor item sold here is charcoal… the grayish-black downtrodden market on the cusp to urban Lusaka is a culturally challenging place to photograph by all standards, even for a local kid.

Holding a camera in public, in fact the whole concept of taking photos of anything but friends and family is barely conceivable to urban Zambians, but is not conceivable to poor rural Zambians bringing their goods to town at a slightly post-apocalyptic looking makeshift market scenery. I usually reassure myself (with the strategies mentioned above) that despite any differences on the surface I’m foremost a good person facing fore-mostly good people but that is not as easy when you also try to keep track of more than two of your twelve proteges… Either way, as far as I could tell the kids mostly clutched their cameras and we soon reassembled at the Land Cruiser and moved on to some more relaxing city destinations. Our final destination for the day, tellingly picked by the kids was ‘Arcades’ - a bland but modern shopping mall.

Despite my own insurmountable visual sensibilities (grit and ingenuity stimulate me) I have known for a long while now that poverty and its attributes hold no romantic, nostalgic nor artistic value whatsoever to those who suffer from it. But in the company of my students it was revealing to see how quickly the trappings of new-found (relative) comfort and ownership (we’re talking about not wearing rags but rather a $25 camera) can eliminate street credit in this type of social surrounding and turn someone’s former stomping grounds into an unexpectedly alienating experience. But what’s the point of debating things like envy and social restriction… it is as I said in the classroom; when rejected, don’t complain but figure out how to do it better. A good photographer has to work hard to eventually earn the interest and deserve the trust of his subjects. In my case I may have to work a little harder on trip research before the next class outing. But then again, there are no beaches here in Zambia and downtown Lusaka (our second stop) wouldn’t have nearly felt as relaxing as it did after our visit to ‘the sad market’.

My students’ ages are as follows: Thokodzile Kauma (17), Charles Chikuni (17), Mary Paxina Makunka (15), Peter Lunghu (11), Mwewa Mwamba (13), Bobsi Saubateli (13), Amos Chindalu (13), Nicolas Banda (13), Annette Banda (14), Monica Phiri (13), Charity Nduluvu (12), Faustina Kumuenda (13). Nominally at least, the older students are my teaching assistants but one quickly realizes that age means nothing in a restrictive social or economical environment when it comes to creativity. Also, some of the younger students appear significantly younger, likely due to malnutrition at an earlier time in their childhood. Most Zambian kids are really polite, many to a point where their politeness and deference toward adults massively gets in the way of things. On top of this, Chishawasha’s orphans live out an interesting dilemma. Their past life circumstance naturally lead them to wanting to please at their own expense, but Chishawasha wants them to succeed as individuals. ‘Showing up as a person’ is one area where I really hope this workshop will do my students some good. To come out of their shells at least where a safe environment is offered to them. My students are all great kids with a potential they shouldn’t have to hide.

On the other hand I also need to accept the fact that people simply operate differently here. So this weekend I’m happy to report, we had much more relaxed outings as I took students (in two half-groups) to their childhood homes or that of a remaining relative. We were helped along greatly by the kids’ decision to bring along Rose - one of the Zambian house mothers who has probably a lot of experience by now when it comes to being a culture broker. The assignment was to have a student partner photograph whatever the hosting student directs him toward, something he or she would like to put into an album about themselves. Suffice to say our visits were eye-openers to me. The kids come to Chishawasha from extremely simple if in many other ways extremely complex surroundings, usually via close relatives that could not or would not support them sufficiently after the death of one or both of their birthparents. The individual stories are highly personal, usually sad and go beyond the scope of this update. For the larger part they remain to be explored within the possibilities of this current workshop.

One reoccurring challenge is to to have my students pay visual respect to the surrounding they live in, not just to record the standard ‘rigor mortis poses’ everyone throws themselves into as soon as a camera is near. Assignments I have given that pretty clearly aim at making people not the central theme have faltered due to the fact that the students best intention will quickly be co-opted by the preconceived notions of anyone else present - and of course there is always someone else present who knows exactly how to take a photo. There are many different sources to this challenge. One being that the only experience many Zambians have with photography is that of taking a passport photo or a singular paid-for family photo. Another being a high-flying ethnographical and linguistic theory that the perceived world of the Bantu people is focused on and organized around a spiritual concept of “The People” first, followed by the individual followed by the animal kingdom followed by all else; this hierarchy may of course lead to the exclusion of the inanimate world when it comes to photography. A much more down-to-earth explanation came to me via Lazarus, one of the Zambian workers at Chishawasha who suggested that most likely ‘The people’ are simply ashamed to show the apparent absence of material possessions… Duh! Thank you Lazarus. I guess I will have to come up with an inspiring talk and examples on the inherent value of things we use daily in our life, no matter if they cost money, are new or half-broken. Then I’ll give an assignment that strictly forbids to show ANY people and see what happens…

Today we’re getting back the results of several assignments and in early preparation of our final exhibition much of this week will be about editing, sequencing and presentation. We’ll have more shooting assignments and (aside from the mentioned NO PEOPLE assignment) I think I can start giving the students a little more space for interpretation. I’ll let you know how that’ll go. And just to mention it right here - Thanks a lot Mary, Bob, Philip, House Moms, teachers for being so supportive of this workshop, wether it concerns juggling your schedules, voicing concerns, giving feedback, driving us around, feeding me well… you rock!

Greetings,
Klaus

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Hello!

(…and welcome to my first blog ever thanks to Catherine Eng Design )

This time directly from Zambia. Thanks for your interest in our work! The short version is that the workshop has started, is doing very well - and so do I - Thanks to the lovely people I’m working with out here… How about yourselves at home? Hope all is well!

Following is a resume of my first African impressions and the workshop that has started today and just as planned:

I arrived in Johannesburg on Wednesday afternoon, passed the customs without any problem and was met by a slightly lost-looking South African taxi driver holding a ‘Klaus Fritz’ sign, as my local photographer friend had instructed him. He took me directly to my friend’s exceptionally beautiful (albeit well-guarded) house. I was welcomed with a cold beer (or two) and soon heard many interesting stories about my friends life in South Africa. After a restful night, he took me on an abbreviated daylong (wallet and camera-free) tour of Johannesburg’s different neighborhoods, told me how things used to be during the time of uprising and how they have changed over the past few years of desegregation. We also visited the former military fortress and infamous political prison at the heart of town, which in recent years experienced a most wonderful and touching transformation. It now holds the constitutional court, an excellent book store and a museum memorializing the struggle against Apartheid. The very beautiful and modern constitutional court was literally built from the rubble of oppression - bricks that made up large parts of the political prison compound, while plenty of the old prison structure was properly preserved to acknowledge the abuses suffered, the lives spent, shortened and lost behind these walls. It is hard to imagine that Apartheid and its terrible human rights abuse was in effect so recently. This alone makes it quite admirable that South Africa - in its persisting social extremes, functions at all in the extent it does on a political level. Obviously everyone living here can only hope for the best.

By Friday morning I was off to the airport once again. Unbeknownst to me, the inside-Africa luggage allowance was 20kg below the international one and my 18 kg overweight was charged at a rate worthy of an 18 kg child. But it was worth it considering all the student’s equipment I was carrying and the non-existing alternative. At least upon my arrival in Lusaka, customs was no problem once again. Mary and Bob (the current onsite ZCF managers) were already waiting for me in the arrival area and took me to the newest and surprisingly fancy shopping mall in Lusaka. We picked up some essentials for the week, I confirmed prices and turn-around times with the local photo lab, dropped a veeery sloooow email and then we hit the road to Chishawasha.

I was impressed to see how pleasantly located and nicely built the general structures are on the Chishawasha campus. If I wasn’t here for work I could easily consider it a simple place to come for mellow weekends on the country side. The weather at this time of the year is beyond perfection, the sunsets are beautiful and the southern night-sky, away from the smog of the Lusaka valley is brilliant. In such a scenario the kids would only be a bonus.

I received a warm welcome from them (…already going by Uncle Klaus) and from the house-mom my first dinner of enshima, a cornmeal- resembling mashed potatoes, eaten daily and by hand along with changing sides of vegetables, sauces, meats and fish. After dinner the kids actually drummed, danced and sang on the veranda, making me feel rather surreal, like I just stepped into a movie set. Alas, no Angela Jolie or Brad Pitt suddenly turned the corner - not this time. After all this is ‘The real Africa’ (according to the Zambian Tourism Authority), and I soon turned in for a good night’s sleep. My bedroom is a perfectly nice room in a perfectly nice house that is also a clinic and staff house. It even has hot water - who would have thought! My room mates Mary and Bob are interesting, mellow and caring. Having a doctor / therapist couple as room mates feels pretty safe, and it is indeed perfectly safe out here - almost being the countryside. Speaking of personal safety: As little as I have so far seen of Lusaka and its people, it appears like a walk in the park compared to the tension-ridden neighborhoods of Johannesburg I briefly skirted.

The weekend was full of photogenic events like 30 kids painting the house, taking the Land Rover to get 17 kids to the barber shop, Sunday service at a tent-church, washing the laundry etc. - so it’s only good that the workshop will require good time from me or I may quickly run out of hard-drive space… Plus, the days are short, both figuratively and in reality since it’s late in the year for the southern hemisphere. I had to keep my eyes o the ball to get my introductory 2-hour lessons prepared, which I was to give twice on Monday (20 children each) in proper classrooms with desks and blackboards at the very cute and very well-built Chishawasha school.

All children assemble each morning on a vast schoolyard and sing the (very singable) national anthem, standing on African red dirt under the waving flag of Zambia. My turn came later in the morning and five hours later my only regret would be that I can only do the full workshop with 9 kids and 3 teens, not the whole sweet bunch of them. But considering that I’m a first-time teacher, all 40 kids received a nice introduction toward photography and visual literacy. Language seemed to be no issue - that’s as long as I was the one doing the talking… The kids tend to be on the respectfully quiet side, so for some of them my intro was certainly more challenging than they admitted, while at the same time, of course I don’t want to underestimate anyone; all in all I think I was received very well.

After two hours of ‘last minute’ preparations and a solid four hours of teaching I was utterly wiped (hats off to ‘real’ teachers). Someones solid hinting via Mary’s email at their expecting news from their son in law made me still write these lines the same night… but I decided to wait for a trip to the email cafe until Wednesday when I can bring the first film to the lab.

On Tuesday my first workshop group class was scheduled for 2 pm but half of the 12 students were missing due to some scheduling issues. Complete by 2.45 pm, the students handled the cameras for the first time. Even though these are simple cameras, it took a while to explain and practice it all. Especially working with a focus lock (a mechanism barely audible and entirely invisible) is not an easy concept to understand (most amateurs don’t) but I think some of my students may get there eventually. Our only Calcutta veteran camera broke down half way through its first film, but unless we start seeing mysterious disappearances (the first assignment film and cameras should be handed in tonight…) we’re still o.k. with the remaining and mostly new cameras.

I’m not telling much about the specific kids in my group as there may still be a couple of changes; two kids from local communities may ultimately not be able to invest the necessary time, for reasons that are a little hard to determine. But maybe we can still figure it out. Plus it takes of course some time to get to know each other a little bit. All the Chishawasha kids were very excited to finally get to photograph and I’m curious what comes out of the first rolls of film. The small kids now come up to me - predictably tugging my sleeve saying “I want a camera”. Get in line shorty, maybe in a couple of years. Again I was too wiped right after class to still go and pursue the workshop kids with my own camera. I’ll have to work on my teacher’s stamina if I want to document this one man affair properly. Though I hope once the basics are explained and understood, my mental workload will ease up. Upcoming excursions should also help the situation.

Be well at home!

Greetings from the Chishawasha Childrens Home,
Lusaka, Zambia, Africa, Planet Earth.

Please visit my project web site at:
http://www.tribeofman.com/zambia

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