August 6th 2016 is the launch of CHOMP’s next unique Gallery Exhibition Our Life: A Karen Village Student Photography Project 6-30 August 2016
The exhibition will run from August 6th – 30th 2016.
The opening party and a chance to meet a few of these remarkable children will be hosted on Saturday August 6th from 7pm.
CHOMP Cafe is excited to present Our Life: A Karen Village Student Photography Project.
The exhibit features photographs taken by a group of 12 year-old students who live in a small Karen village in the jungle in Kanchanaburi Province. The girls, all students at “Suntonvach School” a primary school run by the Border Police in Sanaepong, a Karen ethnic village in Sangkhla Buri, Kanchanaburi province, were given digital point-and-shoot cameras and asked to document their lives over the course of several months.
The exhibit offers an intimate and unique view of life in a jungle village, as the students produced remarkable photographs that capture their daily routines and living conditions while also showcasing their own creative potential.
The Project was designed not only to let the students express themselves creatively, but also to help them educate others about their world. The photographers are all Thai citizens of Karen ethnicity, which is an ethnic minority consisting of several groups, though it is often erroneously only identified with the neck-ring-wearing “hill tribe” group north of Chiang Mai.
The exhibit reveals the hard work, close family and social ties, and cultural traditions inherent in village life, as well as the individual personalities of the villagers and students. Even the inevitable, though jokingly forbidden, “selfies” offer insight into the character and emotions of the photographers, who at age 12 already have substantial responsibilities yet still retain their sense of fun and developing maturity characteristic of pre-adolescents.
Several students and their teacher are expected to attend the exhibit’s opening party at CHOMP. The visit marks the girls’ first opportunity to travel the 8 hour journey to Bangkok. They will also get to spend the rest of the weekend visiting many of Bangkok’s cultural and art institutions. This will provide an excellent opportunity for the students to learn more about their country’s history, broaden their horizons with new experiences, and, of course, enjoy themselves.
The Project was initiated and curated by Josh Lewis, an American who began volunteer teaching in the region several years ago. Impressed by the dedication of the teachers and the potential and intellectual curiosity of the students, Josh ran a fundraiser that provided over 450 books purchased from Bookburi, an independent Bangkok bookseller for both “Suntonvach School”, and the village’s pre-school. Having taken thousands of photographs of village life himself, Josh then decided to challenge some of the students to photographically tell their own stories with a single camera he initially donated. The first photos received had such an overwhelmingly positive response when posted online, that he donated a few more cameras so that more students could join the project.
Life in a remote village can be extremely physically demanding and not necessarily financially rewarding, so an online fundraiser has been set up to help deserving village students continue their educations once they graduate from their primary school (after grade 6): https://www.youcaring.com/village-school-472699
Details on the previous fundraiser can be found here: https://www.youcaring.com/village-school-472699
If you have any questions, would like to be a sponsor or help out in anyway; Josh Lewis, the project curator and initiator is available on 0846447206 or via email joshlew.13@gmail.com
www.youcaring.com/abookoftheirown
www.gottagettaway.com
www.joshlewisphotos.com
http://www.facebook.com/events/318104351879902/
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