Category Archives: Teaching

UPDATE: Two things to add to my previous post. Unfortunately we had a camera stolen recently. It is the third one we’ve lost this year. Two were stolen and one was broken. The teens are mostly from the slum and some very rough areas, so it is a risk for us. Students get mugged just like the rest of society. Secondly, and most importantly perhaps, I found out today that the city government has yet to comply with its promised funding for the program this year. This is not that unusual because even though money has been ‘budgeted’ to a specific program, that does not mean it actually arrives, or arrives in a timely manner. There is still hope that it will come in December, which will give a boost to the program in 2011. Without that money the Ojo de Pez program is in risk for 2011. It is growing! But we are unable to keep up with the growth, either due to lack of cameras, camera cards, computers or just plain old cash. The director recently bought a few cameras and found a great deal, $480 pesos for a camera, card and rechargeable batteries. That is only $123usd with today’s conversion rate. Please take a moment to look over the post and visit the site. We appreciate your help this season.

So, Christmas is coming. Hey, don’t hate the messenger. I waited until the middle of November to post this. But inevitably the holidays arrive and you’re contemplating a gift for someone, or perhaps for yourself, that includes updating your point-and-shoot (ie compact) digital camera. Maybe it is time to get the one with the bigger file size, more bells, more whistles, more cool stuff? Sounds great. Do you know what sounds even better? You knew this post was going somewhere, right?

Donating your older, yet fully functioning, digital camera to Ojo de Pez (see Get Involved for a brief description of the program).

And we could use it. Last year we had three different digital photography workshops (workshops meet once a week from March through December during the regular school year), for a total of 61 students (workshops are held in Centro Conviven and a nearby school). We had 20 cameras. The amount of students versus the quantity of cameras meant students could not take cameras home all the time. The purpose of the program is to empower the teens through photography; to teach a way of seeing both themselves and their environment. Kind of hard to do that fully if we can’t offer cameras on a regular basis. It sucks to have to be creative only on Tuesdays between the hours of 10am and 1pm. What if inspiration happens at night? What if it happens at home? What if the next Pulitzer photograph happens Wednesday at 3:02am? That might be a little extreme, but you probably get my point. Being able to take the cameras home is an integral part of the program. It shows trust, it builds self-esteem and responsibility and as most photographers know, the more you shoot the more you look for photographs and the better you get at the whole process.

This year in the Centro Conviven where I volunteer we have four photography workshops (level 1 and for the first time, level 2) for a total of 32 students. There are an additional 12 teenagers in the video workshop. In the school this year there are 20 students for still photography and another 16 with the video program for a total of 80 students. We still have only 20 cameras (when they are all working).

We’re on summer break over Christmas and January, but it would be quite the gift if we could open the 2011 year in March with more cameras and more opportunities to challenge these students coming from La Ciudad Oculta and Villa Lugano. And if perhaps you don’t have a digital camera to donate, maybe you have a spare SD memory card. Obviously we can use a few of those along with the cameras.

So a little giving to yourself and a little giving to the teenagers with Ojo de Pez sounds good. If you think you can donate, please contact me first and I can give you specifics on memory cards and where to mail the cameras. If you’re in Argentina it will be easier, but if you’re in the states and want to donate I’ll get the cameras and supplies down here.

You can download the official Project Outline in English for the full organizational description of the Ojo de Pez program and how it functions.