My name is Carly, and this is my third year with the program. I have studied in Costa Rica and South Africa, where I currently am. I am really interested in the arts, and creative processes, and their ability to transform communities of people through social action outlets. Backing up a bit, when I was around eight, I found this series of black and white prints that my Mom had shot, while studying at Evergreen, of homeless people in Pioneer Square, Seattle. (Where I grew up) I remember just sitting with them in our damp unfinished basement, marveling in the ability they allowed me to just stare in wonder at their subjects, people who I had never felt as comfortable looking at or studying before.
I come from a family of artists, and my youth has been partially filled with the search for ways in which I can satiate my creative energy while contributing to my global community, more than just aesthetically. Photography has been my ends to this search for the past three years.
Dorothea Lange, a famous photographer who caught many famous images from America's great depression said: "The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera." This is a quote that I am diving into my project this semester with. I have dabbled in documenting, portrait, and commercial shooting, but what I really think is going to change the world around is not an exclusive group of elite photographers, but a population of people who have been taught to see by exploring their world with a camera.
This semester I will be teaching a black and white photography course to high school students from a poorer Durban school and a richer one together. We will be working from a self explorative curriculum with the idea that photography and education can together be a means to combat the misunderstanding that is bred by gentrification.
I will also be working to implement a weekend arts education program to marginalized youth from poorer townships and informal settlements around Durban. I am working with an organization called Ikamva Youth, out of Durban, that tutors these high schoolers one to three times a week, to help them pass their final 'senior or metric' exams. Every Saturday I meet with the kids, sometimes with a guest speaker from the Durban arts community, and present a new way to exercise our right brains.
Lastly, I will also be working with the Durban branch of the Right2Know campaign. I am currently in the process of organizing an interactive and traveling photo booth/exhibition with them, that will encourage younger participants to join the fight against the secrecy bill that is currently being passed though legislation.
So there is my semester in a nutshell. Global College is a unique program with a ton of independence for the dedicated self-educator, and I would recommend the program to any self disciplined learner with a desire for global citizenry.
