Over the last three months at Children’s Express we’ve been running our first photography workshops as part of a citywide outreach programme.
| The young people are very enthusiastic – many of them have a huge amount of talent in the field. |
Project 13 has been targeted specifically at young people just about to move into their teenage years.
Young people have been training each other through a peer education technique, basically no adults are involved and we learn the skills from each other. The goal is to first appreciate the artistry in photography and then be able to go out and take pictures. Our young trainers have begun working with 4 different youth clubs from around the city.
“One of the project’s main aims for me is to reach as many different young people from as many different back grounds as possible,” said Orlaith Wood, 14, a member of the Project 13 training team.
The team consists of five members of Children’s Express, working with around thirty young people. According to Orlaith there has been moments of hesitation: “At the start I was apprehensive, but as I developed my photography skills, I became more confident about passing them on.”
 Suffering for her art - Amy Magowan Greene is trapped in the name of photography and Project 13. | |
|
Top professional photographer John Harrison kindly took time out of his busy schedule to work with Children’s Express by training Orlaith and the rest of the team.
The training was of particular benefit to Daragh Scullion, 15, who discovered he had a hidden talent in photography: “I have been astonished by the amount of skills I have learned recently and it turns out I am pretty good at photography.”
Not only will Project 13 teach the trainees technical skills in photography, it offers a valuable insight into the various communities. According to Daragh Scullion, the trainees showed great promise: “The young people are very enthusiastic and I can clearly see that many of them have a huge amount of talent in the field. Mostly what’s really encouraging is their enthusiasm.”
Come the end of the project there will be two types of exhibitions, one in local community centres and a main showpiece in the city centre where the best of the photos will be presented.
About the team
This story was written by Drew Mikhael, and was published in art.ie magazine in Northern Ireland.
See the results of this project in the Project 13 Exhibition. You can see more young people's photography at the Children's Express Alien Angle online exhibition.
