“Through my eyes, my voice” was a photo documentary empowerment project that involved 30 youth between the ages of 10-19 years of age attending the House of Smiles in Wharf Jeremie (Cite Soleil), Port-au-Prince Haiti. The project resulted in a feasibility study and 20 three-hour sessions.
Cesvi, an Italian NGO working in Haiti since 2009, sponsored thirty Haitian youth living within Port-au-Prince in a region called Wharf Jeremie to participate within 10 workshop sessions. The participants were taught basic concepts and principles of design of photography. Digital cameras were lent to the participants with instructions to take photos of whatever they like as long as the images were visually in response to answering the following questions:
- What are the main challenges you are facing in your community? What are the positive aspects or strengths of your community?
- What is Cesvi doing/has done to improve or address these challenges? What could Cesvi do to improve and better meet the needs?
- How do you plan to use your life to make a positive impact within your community and on other people?
The participants then reviewed their photographs and explained how their images were visual reflections that answered the questions. These reflections were then used as the captions for the images within the self-selected exhibit. This community based approach allowed the participants to tell their own stories of the significance behind their lived experiences depicted in the photographs. They had the opportunity to express themselves and were given the means to have a visual voice to shed light on their daily realities as they saw them – not by what others project onto them. Their reflections compliment the photos and help to bring each participant’s voice to the surface, which assists their intended message to be more clearly and explicitly known.
This innovative process is a method to effectively and creatively reveal what is meaningful for the youth participating and helping provide a inventive tool (photography – a visual representation of their voice that can be understand beyond the boundaries of language) to help ‘hear’ their voice, opinions, and perspectives. What has been able to transpire within these types of projects and body of work is the empowerment of others to be their own researcher and advocate for others to understand their perspective. Photography has the power to communicate compelling representations of realties that touch us more deeply and more directly then other media – and has the potential to transcend beyond the boundaries of language.
This type of photo project could be compared to or is similar to narrative approaches to inquiry. Narrative or story telling research processes aspire to capture the stories that people share about their lives because the stories are considered to be a meaningful approach for understanding the significance behind lived experience (Johnston, 2005). The process does not attempt to capture a full narrative about community life; rather, to provide a glimpse into social realities. This project’s aim was to help give those that are voiceless, or often less heard, a voice. Additionally, to also examine how the experience of participating in the creation of a photo documentary impacted them as individuals. It is not to tell people what to think, but teaching and enabling people to have a visual voice to help guide others on what to think about.
Images highlighting the perspective of the facilitator Morea Steinhauer can be seen here. A similar project facilitated in Costa Rica can be viewed here.
Powerful collaborative experience for me in working with Janine to come to this Bras on Broadway piece. Even more power are her words (listed below). She is an incredible woman and I am so excited to celebrate her, her story, and this collaborative piece at this years event. Hope to see you at the 2011 Bras on Broadway event on Thursday Oct 27 from 7-10pm+ at the Hotel Donaldson. Want more info and/or attend? Click here.
“Life is good…I choose to live.”
“I watched two women I love dearly battle cancer with grace, courage and bravery unlike I have ever seen. Whether it was a good or bad day I heard ”Life is Good” and humor which would comfort us all. I want to take their message further and say I choose to live because life is good. They are with me and will give me strength when I need it most.”
This was my first entry to my caringbridge page and set the course for my attitude during my journey with breast cancer. This photo brings the two together as the rosary in my hands is the rosary of my mother, given to me by my father during my treatments. Finally it represents Faith that I was going to come out of this journey with a cure…Faith in God, my doctors, and my friends and family to see me through the journey.
—Janine Trowbridge
Janine is a powerful, dynamic, and bold woman. Her positive energy and essence is so beautiful. A glimpse of her amazingness and her effect on people can be see below 
Sam is the younger sister of Leah and we had a blast doing her senior photos within the beautiful backdrop of the iron range within the northeast side of the state. Truly an incredibly beautiful part of Minnesota, but add a dynamic Sam, some beautiful light — and BAM! — results in some amazing portraits!
People from Minnesota sure do know how to enjoy their lake country, and this family is no exception. But even more celebrated than the water are these two little girls — Hazel and Maddie. Just a quick preview of the fun we had that weekend.
When attending a wedding, it is very strange for me to photograph less than 75 frames. And it’s also just as crazy/strange to have 7 couples that you know (4 of whom are very close friends) all get married globally on the same day. Who knew that June 25, 2011 was the ‘day-of-love’ for so many of the people that I love? Not this girl before receiving all the invites and inquiries to photograph.
How did this one win out? Well, this was truly no ordinary wedding — it was a celebration of life-long companionship between two amazing people, one of which is my closest friend. Christina and I first met back in 2002 as freshmen in college and we’ve have super close ever since. (And it also helped that they are super organized and were the first one to reserve the date. 
It was an honor to be able to help them celebrate their relationship and commitment to one another. Here’s to being “shoes that fit”! Love you both. -m
In March 2011 I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Liv Gudmundson. Liv is a native of the Upper Midwest and her father is my (declared by me) life coach, but her life path has lead her to Paris France where she currently resides. She’s an amazingly witty and articulate person who is currently pursuing her masters. It was an honor to have the opportunity to share my work with her and ultimately have the interview with images be published on the French website http://www.lesphotographes.com/ that she contributes and co-manages. (The interview can also be found here translated to English.) The headshot was contributed and taken by the talented Britta Trygstad.
Below is a screen shot of part of the article:
Earlier this spring our good friends and neighbors stopped over to help us dig out some of the plethora of lilies we had in the backyard. Edie was an amazing helper as far as little people go and it’s a delight whenever we get to see her & family.
A few weeks back I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Paul Giguere, a photographer based in Boston. His current focus is on social documentary photographic projects that show the positive aspects of the human condition while helping others tell their stories through words and pictures. In addition to his own work, he is employed at Tufts University and interviews other photographers for his podcast. You can hear his interview of my by clicking here. Enjoy!
“Morea Steinahuer is a photojournalist who’s work has taken her across Latin America and Haiti. Her most recently has been working on collaborative projects connected to end-of-life care and families effected by migration/immigration legislation. As person who seeks out environments of collaboration, mutual mentorship, and engagement around social issues – Morea is someone who is always open to exploring new project ideas and forming new partnerships.”
Ellen and Kyle decided that there was no other place better than their beloved Florence (Italy) to affirm their relationship intimately with their close family and friends. It was a week long celebration of many events (i.e. walking tours, cooking classes, bachelor/bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinner, etc.) affirming and celebrating their union enhanced by amazing weather and incredible cuisine. As a couple they’ve already faced hell (i.e. cancer with Kyle’s diagnosis in Dec 2008), so this truly was a time to celebrate two beautiful people. Just a quick glimpse of the 3200+ (post editing) images that resulted in capturing their wedding week.
by Morea Steinhauer
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