Photography Programs
Images are means of expressing universal emotion and experience. Through two different photography training programs, we hope to empower many young photographers and help them share information and ideas-the greatest weapons in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Photographic Memory
HIV/AIDS robs too many children of their friends and family, and endemic poverty prevents those kids from having many tangible memories of those loved ones. So many of these children will never have a single photograph of a dead mother or sick baby brother; too many will never be able to look back as adults at pictures from an afternoon playing with friends.
Through what we call Photographic Memory, these orphans and vulnerable children will be able to document and chronicle their own lives for themselves and those who come after them. The Photographic Memory program endeavors to do several things.
The primary goal of Photographic Memory is to teach care workers and children the basics of digital photography so they can have pictures of their loved ones and document their own experiences. TRIAD provides digital cameras, storage media, photo printers, and consumables.
Every child will keep every photograph he or she snaps. And those images captured of families by home-based care workers will also be printed and given to the children. By training local advocates and the children, TRIAD hopes to give the community a means of expressing itself in a way that transcends language barriers that often separate cultures, and that transcends time.
And at the end of our training together, the new photographers get to show off their favorite pictures at an exhibition for everyone in the community to see. TRIAD will also keep digital copies of every image and create traveling exhibitions back in the United States as a way to generate income to sustain the project for future cohorts. The traveling photography show, most importantly, will give voice to a generation of children living with hope amidst the despair of HIV/AIDS.
These photos were taken by a 12-year-old HIV+ patient while she waited for two hours in the hospital to receive her monthly supply of anti-retroviral drugs.
