CARACAS, VENEZUELA
100CAMERAS X ESPACIO ANNA FRANK
MADE POSSIBLE BY BILLTRUST
100cameras X Espacio Anna Frank is a part of a 8 class course that is custom designed by 100cameras to equip passionate creatives with the tools to empower youth in a community they care about with the opportunity to learn how to process their stories and create change. Pictured here are 100cameras students during the course.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
100cameras X Espacio Anna Frank took place in Caracas, Venezuela in partnership with Espacio Anna Frank, a non-profit organization that seeks to bring the principles of coexistence and respect to students in schools, educating the children and young adults about the consequences of intolerance in societies. In alliance with Fundacion Plano Creativo, a laboratory of education in adversity through audiovisual creation and the project Secuencias Ciudadanas.
Currently, Espacio Anna Frank focuses on the areas of Culture, Education, Youth and Museum. The organization aims to contribute to the promotion of mutual respect, especially towards those individuals and groups who have customs, origins, religions and ideas different from those of the majority. To this end, it develops educational and cultural activities that allow greater and better knowledge of those endemic evils that are prejudice and stereotypes, and their immediate consequences: hatred and discrimination against religious, cultural, ethnic or sexual minorities.
“I can express, in general, that the students had improvements in many areas such as their ability to communicate with the teachers, to better relate between peers who did not know each other, and to learning how to respect different points of view. To taking the time to observe and register beautiful images and to trying their best can be summarized on graduation day were we asked them to come forward in public to express their opinion on the program and say something about the images they made. We were very proud of each of them.”
The goal of this program was to provide participants from vulnerable communities with the opportunity to receive training in an academic program, in which, among other aspects, they evaluated who they are and who they want to be in the future, as well as learned formal topics of composition and photographic techniques. This is so that, once the training is finished, the program will continue in future editions and consolidate its transformative purpose together with allies and/or other actors who live in the locality.
The students from 100cameras X Espacio Anna Frank live in a low resource community in Caracas and experience the everyday struggles that come from lack of resources and living below the poverty line. As reflected upon by the Program Leader and local Venezuelan, Elizabeth Schummer, “Specially in Venezuela, in the locations and communities we have chosen in the three experiences that we have had with this program, are generally associated with prejudice and the misconception of the relation of poverty versus dignity and the hard work of the local leaders. We believe that encouraging the children to observe, document, and value their community, the people, the landscape, their homes etc, and then to celebrate these discoveries, is a key factor for them to feel proud of their background and make all the efforts to grow and become their better selves.
Espacio Anna Frank mission is to promote coexistence thru education and culture, and I believe 100cameras relates with us in this common goal of forming agents of change in their local communities that will connect with others through their stories and images, enhancing the values of the community. Reinforcing the sense of belonging and making the children connect with their surroundings promotes self-esteem, and as a consequence, a positive impact in the community.”
A network of artistic initiatives made up of more than 25 photographers, filmmakers, and activists allied to the project to serve as inspiration for new community initiatives, managed and led by its youth. The network of initiatives is a product of the numerous alliances that were achieved in the artistic community. The program facilitators and creative friends of Espacio Anna Frank were committed to the El Calvario community and especially to the children who attended the program. The objective of the network is to be able to provide support through a space for continuous and experimental education, in addition to providing a platform for the visibility of their work and content.
“The 100cameras organization presented us the opportunity to offer this group of young people the chance to explore their emotions through images and words. This course basically tries to make us all realize that photography and writing are powerful tools of expression that allows for self-transformation, and consequently, transforms others.”
Upon completion of the 100cameras curriculum, the students gained an invaluable tool to process their past and present and to continue to pursue the confidence and determination to build a better future for themselves and their families.
MEET THE STUDENTS
“This class is very deep because they learned how to put on paper their life history, and I feel they opened up to themselves. In this class, the teacher that volunteered shared her Map My Story activity in a very open and honest way. And since it was filled with sad events - as well as happy ones - they felt connected and thought, ‘Well, if she can express all that, then we can too’. Therefore I believe it was very positive for them. ”
ABOUT THE PROGRAM LEADERS
Elizabeth Schummer. With a Masters in Oral Surgery from UCV/NYU and a now retired Oral surgeon of thirty years, Elizabeth moved into photography as a way to see everything that surrounds her in a different way. She is the Photography Programs Director and Cultural Promoter for Espacio Anna Frank and has studied at CIEFVE Caracas Venezuela and Master PhotoEspaña 2021. Elizabeth has been a co-curator in different photography exhibitions, her work has been published in different digital magazines, and she has been part of Collective Exhibits in Caracas and Madrid as well as Authored the photobook, Mirada Inversa, Caracas, 2022.
Eduardo Burger. Writer, teacher, screenwriter with more than twenty years dedicated to the management and implementation of citizenship experiences through different arts. Co-director and founder of Plano Creativo, dedicated to education in vulnerable communities through audiovisual creation. Creative advisor and community liaison for LABO Ciudadano, dedicated to strengthening the social fabric through activism and the arts. Eduardo teaches scriptwriting and theater classes at the Andrés Bello Catholic University. He has written for various print and audiovisual media.
Eva Mujica. Mass media communicator from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, audiovisual producer, cultural manager and general coordinator for Fundación Plano Creativo since 2018.
STUDENT IMAGE GALLERY
Follow us on social media to see images from the field as captured by the 100cameras X Espacio Anna Frank team and the student photographers.
Thank you to Billtrust for making this program possible!
