EPISODE 18: ART AS CONNECTION
JOIN US FOR A ROUND TABLE WITH with guest SERBEST SALIH AS WE DISCUSS HOW CREATIVE EXPRESSION PROVIDES NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH AND HIS IMPORTANT WORK IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
THE ROUND TABLE EXPLORES
Join us with guest Serbest Salih, founder of the Sirkhane DARKROOM, a mobile photography project that teaches refugee and local children photography skills on the Turkish-Syrian Border. Together we discuss our experiences from seeing firsthand the power of providing creative expression to youth and how photography defies language barriers and brings hyperlocal events to an international audience. Hosted by Angela Popplewell, CEO, and Lydia Billings, COO, of 100cameras.
“Let's use photography. It's a very useful tool to make children express themselves. And the results of the photography are amazing because in the beginning of the workshop, when you see children are participating in the workshop, they are very shy. They cannot express themselves, and they don't have a self-confidence. But by attending to workshops, day by day, they started expressing themselves, asking about their rights, and talking about their rights,” reflects Salih.
“So photography is a really good tool to remove war trauma, and also it’s a really, really good tool to open a new door for them. There’s a lot of examples. I remember some of the children, they was out of the schools. So with the photography, we forwarded them to the school, and now they are continuing their education and now they are more interested in photography.”
MEET THE GUEST
SERBEST SALIH. A photo artist and photographer from Kobane, Syria. Having worked as a photographer with local Non-Governmental Organizations, his love for people transformed him into having a camera by his side and taking portraits of every emotion that inspired him - resulting in a photographic style and commitment filled with emotion, storytelling, mood, and intimacy. His passion for photography grew stronger when he started the Sirkhane DARKROOM, a nonprofit that includes both a mobile photography project and photography school for refugees and local children on the Turkish and Syrian border.