In*vi"sion\, n. Want of vision or of the power of seeing.
The Invision Project is about giving orphans the power of seeing through photography.
Working with youth from Nanchang, Jiangxi (China) my GOAL is for the students grow in self-confidence, learn about the world about them, and DREAM of who they can be...
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Each of the five times I have gone to China to spend time with orphans, the kids are completely in love with the idea of "borrowing" my camera and taking pictures of absolutely everything around them.
Granted, some of the camera-grabbing culprits have been energetic little boys who just wanted control of what was in my hands, but then there were the others...
There were the ones who carefully handled my digital SLR and thoughtfully composed each frame. A huge smile would come over their faces as they would review their photograph on the screen. They had taken the beautiful image they were staring at.
That was enough to motivate me to get their own cameras into their hands...
I started collecting gently used digital cameras and took them over to China with me the summer of 2010. The last stop of my trip was to a city called Nanchang. I have many Chinese friends there who were jumping up and down to help me with The Invision Program, and I knew some of the youth from the SOS Nanchang Orphanage who have come to Bring Me Hope's Summer Camps in years past. And so The Invision Project began.
In the mornings we would gather together so I could teach them the basics of photography, and then we'd go on daily field trips for them to get hands on experience shooting, which they loved.
Each morning they seemed to be more and more anxious for us to arrive...waiting a little closer to the orphanage gate for us each day.
One day it was absolutely pouring and after the morning lesson I asked the girls if they still wanted to go out shooting in the city. This was one of the girl's reply:
"Of COURSE we still want to go shooting! We'd still want to go if it were raining knives out...if there was a tsunami...we'd still want to go take pictures!" :)
Needless to say, we had a very fun, wet day.
At the end of our time together I gave the girls their photographs and a CD of all their images. In reply of what their favorite thing about our time together was, one 16 year old humbly said,
"Every time I set up my picture and click the button, I feel so proud of myself."
Goal accomplished.
