WP1 Pre-Writing 1

This photograph is from the gallery "Through the Eyes of Children" reached from a link on the Wysocki site. The photograph was taken by a boy named Musa at the Imbabazi Orphanage in Rwanda. The project started in 2000 and gave cameras to orphans so they could document their lives after the Rwandan genocide. Most of the pictures in the gallery were taken with 35mm disposable cameras and in 2005, digital cameras started to be used. This photo, "Sitting on Rail," was taken with a disposable camera.

The people in this picture are most likely other children at the Imbabazi Orphanage. As the title says, they are sitting an a rail overlooking the water, probably overlooking Lake Kivu, a lake in western Rwanda near where the orphanage is located.

Most of the children were probably orphaned as a result of the extensive violence and genocide that occurred in Rwanda in the 1990s. Rwanda is not a rich country, so most of these children would have had hard lives despite being orphans displaced by tragedy. Growing up in an orphanage would not have been easy, especially after losing or being abandoned by their parents, but the children were provided food and shelter, as well as some degree of protection from the instability of the country. Literally translated, "Imbabazi" means “a place where you will receive all the love and care a mother would give” so likely, the children in the orphanage would have been relatively well off compared to other impoverished children in sub-Saharan Africa.

It is probably warm outside because sub-Saharan Africa is typically hot, and this is shown by the clothes the children are wearing and the fact that most of them aren't wearing shoes. This could also be because they are poor and can't afford shoes. It is also really cloudy in the picture, suggesting that it is in a season that gets more rain or is cooler than usual.

Some of the children appear to be friends given that they are in clusters along the rail instead of all spread out, and this could be because of the similar situation they were forced into. It looks like the children are on some kind of bridge or road because of the rail, and the photographer is standing behind them, possibly on the other side of the bridge. If you look closely, you can see a beach and part of a person on the beach on the right hand side of the picture. This beach might have been a place where the children went in their free time for fun and relaxation, or maybe the children couldn't go there and that is why they are all standing on the bridge. In the picture, they seem to be looking out across the water at something, but you can't really tell what it is from looking at the photograph. They could be watching the person on the beach or something else that isn't visible to the audience.

Weekly Blog Post 7

I wouldn't consider myself an expert at photography by any means, but I enjoy it and I have some experience with it. I just got a new camera, a Nikon Coolpix S220, which is not the most high-quality, top-notch camera out there, but it works well for what I use it for. I mostly use photography to take pictures when I hang out with friends or go on trips so it's nothing that serious, but it's fun and I always enjoy going back and looking at pictures. Pictures help me remember things and are a lot easier to share with other people. I would rather go through and look at someone's vacation pictures than hear them tell me all about the trip. Like the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words."

I really like playing around with different camera settings and filters. Black and white photos are my favorite because I like the visual appeal of them. They are very simple and classic, and I think they look more artsy than standard color photos. I do like color, but black and white or sepia works better with some photos. Generally, I think black and white is better for more formal pictures of people, but color is better for things like landscapes or informal pictures. I had a lot of my senior pictures done in black and white, and those were my favorites, but I usually just use color when goofing around with my friends.

I'm getting more into photography lately because my dad is an amateur photographer, and he is very good at it. He has several cameras for different uses, and has shown my brothers and I how to use them and what they are for. We have a darkroom in our basement because he develops his own film, and I would like to learn how to do that. It's really interesting to me, but I just haven't been home enough or had the time to work on it.