OJOS nuevos video released in english

The english version of the first OJOS nuevos video is here to be released. While a more descriptive, lengthy video is being worked on, it won't be finished for quite some time. Meanwhile, we have this piece which introduces the program and showcases many of the girl's photographs. Enjoy! Spanish version coming soon...

OJOS nuevos is a social documentary project that puts cameras in the hand of youth from the hogares in which Voluntarios de la Esperanza works. Photographers Lindy Drew and Christine Mladic started the projects in order to let the participants explore the creativity, enjoyment, and importance of photography. By letting young women be the photographers, they were able to lose themselves in a rewarding activity and tell their story from their own perspectives, capturing what life is like for them in Santiago de Chile. Using digital cameras and computers in the hogares or in local libraries, 16 girls have participated in workshops, each session lasting about five months. They watched slideshows exposing them to international photography, they learned about the history of photography and about cameras that use film, they learned how to protect and hide their cameras in public (the hard way), and they felt the anticipation of waiting for their pictures to come back from the printer. The grand finale to the workshops was to photograph for a day in Valparaíso, a picturesque coastal city about two hours away from Santiago. Lindy and Christine organized the workshops to include slideshows, assignments, editing, and fieldtrips. Some girls preferred to shoot in their neighborhood, others only found interesting subject matter in new surroundings. Some young women would walk right up to strangers and take their portrait, others focused the camera back on themselves. With so much to document and so much to learn from the process of making pictures, the youth soared with the opportunity. OJOS nuevos was first introduced to Hogar San Francisco de Regis with cameras collected by Christine as private donations. She continued the project at Hogar Aldea María Reina afterwards. Lindy Drew brought OJOS nuevos to Hogar Nuestra Señora de la Paz thanks to a donation from Pentax and the www.TakeGreatPictures.com.