Kids Vision: Photographic Works by Children

I went to Terrakulture to see Death and the King's Horseman. As usual, I went to the gallery on the 1st floor of the main building to see what was new.

What was new was Kids Vision, an photography exhibition by children which started from Dec 10th and was ending today (the 14th). Lucky for me, I thought! I love photography exhibitions and I am especially interested in seeing how young people view the world.

The exhibition was organised by African Child Development Initiative (ACDI), a new NGO with a vision "to promote lasting improvements in the lives of local under privileged children." This exhibition was the result of a two-part project, where children from a private school in Ikoyi (Lagos Preparatory School) and from a disadvantaged school in Iwaya (Premier Foundation School) were taught the fundamentals of photography and then given cameras to take pictures based on some specific themes: My friends; My family; My home; My school; and Myself. The second part of this project involved giving 200 children disposable cameras to capture images of "their Lagos."

This reminds me of a documentary I watched a few years ago that chronicled a project very similar to this, but which was set in a Calcutta slum. I can't remember the name now, but it won an Academy award for the best foreign film, or was it best documentary (is there such a category?). Well, I'm sure it'll come to me later.

The photographs ranged from the fun, the witty to the poignant and the fascinating. And while I might have expected the subjects or the approach to somehow indicate that the pictures were taken by a child, I have to say that this wasn't the case for me. I think some people (young or old) just have an interesting way of viewing the world and this is reflected in their photographs. And so there were the fair share of photos that made me stop and look closer.

My only grouse was that some of the photos appeared to have been printed out with a regular office printer on copier paper, and so the beauty of the photograph was somewhat diminished. There was however a beautifully printed coffee table book available for purchase. My only other complaint is that I discovered this exhibition too late to let people know about it.

Visit ACDI's website at www.theacdi.org for more info.

NB: Okay, the film whose name I couldn't remember is called Born into Brothels.