This movie about the creation of photo stories takes place at first in Damascus, Syria where a group of 30 or so women learn to use a digital camera and begin experimenting with them by taking lots of pictures of everything they encountered. They also created these life journey picture board things and the women had very tragic as well as very touching backgrounds. Some were struggling with growing up in a worn-torn region; a fear of the inevitable seems to grip them constantly. Others had painful stories about marriage, children, being kidnapped for ransom and other forms of violence. The women told their stories with a surprising amount of grace and control.
Seeing the women try and ‘figure out’ photography – not how it works per se but how it sends a message or a feeling - was very interesting especially when they stopped to talk about a picture of a little girl whom they felt had been exploited. Some felt the photographer exploited her by taking her picture but others saw a deeper pain, exploitation from elsewhere in her young life. The actual little girl in the video had impressive insight for her age regarding her own photography project. In her choosing to “laugh instead of cry” sends a message of wisdom beyond her years.
The video definitely helped me learn not only about personal histories and photography but also about women on the ‘other side’. It would be impossible for me not to feel empathy but at the same time grateful that I have grown up in relative safety and without this oppressive atmosphere of death and fear surrounding me.
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