A Journey Into Photojournalism
£2,108
of £2,000 targetyrs ago
Successful on 25th Nov 2014 at 2:22PM.
*** UPDATE: Thank you for helping me reach the target to make this possible. Funding has finished now, but if you want to support in some way, you can make a private donation to Prisoner Assistance Nepal (via their website) for helping me out.
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Thanks for dropping by to find out about this Pozible project, I appreciate your interest.
I am asking for sponsorship to attend a photographic storytelling course so that I can teach young people how to use visual storytelling to communicate and create a voice for themselves. My goal is to improve my own skills in photo-story editing and pass on this experience to others by helping them produce their own visual documentaries. For the course I will photograph a story called "Firefly", about work being done for children's protection. I intend to present this to youngsters in my hometown Swindon, where I will share my skills and experiences through a photojournalism club I'm setting up. In order to achieve my aims I need to raise the money and I'm making this appeal for you to help me - so I can give something back to my local community in return.
My aims are:
▪ To improve my visual storytelling skills and master the craft of photo-story editing
▪ To pass on the skills and expertise I will have learnt to youngsters in my hometown
▪ To complete a photographic story in Nepal, so I have a powerful story to take into schools, colleges and youth organisations
▪ To raise awareness of Nepal’s prison system, the unique challenges it presents and the work being done to change things for the better
▪ To introduce people to what photojournalists do
▪ To creatively engage youngsters to participate in photographic storytelling and show them how to create a visual voice for the things that matter to them
▪ To establish Swindon’s first photojournalism club for people 16+ to engage with others through documentary photography, so they can express their identity and raise awareness of issues they face, or care strongly about
▪ To organise exhibitions that showcase this work
▪ To blog my experiences and bring you on the journey with me
The training is in Kathmandu and you may well ask, "Why does Sam have to go all the way to Nepal when he could go somewhere closer to home?" In a nutshell: it is an opportunity to learn skills I can pass to others from a top-level documentary photographer, and it offers excellent value. The tutor, Edwin Koo, is an international award-winning and humanitarian photojournalist, well known for his black and white imagery dealing with issues of human displacement and the lost sense of identity. He believes strongly in teaching the value of connecting with people and observing without an opinion, to discover real stories instead of following clichéd lines of enquiry. The masterclass provides one-to-one teaching from Edwin and a photojournalist "buddy" for the duration, runs for 8 days and costs US$1,500. In comparison to other workshops approaching the same level that cost between US$4,000-6,5000.
Please take a look at his acclaimed body of work, "A Strange Place Called Home".
Edwin Koo [pic: IPA]
The real pay-off of this project is that I can bring back a powerful story that will enable me to work with youngsters in my hometown Swindon. My aim is to guide and teach them to create a voice through visual storytelling, and how to use photography to document their own and each other’s lives. I want to make photojournalism accessible for them to open up and feel better connected, bringing new purpose and meaning to the environment around them. My long-term goal is to inspire more people to become real-life storytellers, so they can find a vehicle to express themselves and raise awareness of what matters to them.
To help achieve this, I am in the process of starting a photojournalism club in Swindon - for anyone to join, to be launched in spring 2015.
The story “Firefly” that I plan to cover during the 8-day course is about Indira Ranamagar, founder of Prisoners Assistance Nepal, and the children she rescues from prison. Her own journey is an inspiration in itself - coming from a rural village in Nepal, she worked hard for an education that led her to become a school-teacher and then a human rights worker. Indira has just received the 2014 World Children's Prize Honourary Award for her 20-year struggle changing attitudes in her society and transforming the future for Nepal's imprisoned children.
Indira and a young girl leaving prison to begin a new chapter [pic: Pradeep Kc]
*****************************************************************************************************************
Thanks for dropping by to find out about this Pozible project, I appreciate your interest.
I am asking for sponsorship to attend a photographic storytelling course so that I can teach young people how to use visual storytelling to communicate and create a voice for themselves. My goal is to improve my own skills in photo-story editing and pass on this experience to others by helping them produce their own visual documentaries. For the course I will photograph a story called "Firefly", about work being done for children's protection. I intend to present this to youngsters in my hometown Swindon, where I will share my skills and experiences through a photojournalism club I'm setting up. In order to achieve my aims I need to raise the money and I'm making this appeal for you to help me - so I can give something back to my local community in return.
My aims are:
▪ To improve my visual storytelling skills and master the craft of photo-story editing
▪ To pass on the skills and expertise I will have learnt to youngsters in my hometown
▪ To complete a photographic story in Nepal, so I have a powerful story to take into schools, colleges and youth organisations
▪ To raise awareness of Nepal’s prison system, the unique challenges it presents and the work being done to change things for the better
▪ To introduce people to what photojournalists do
▪ To creatively engage youngsters to participate in photographic storytelling and show them how to create a visual voice for the things that matter to them
▪ To establish Swindon’s first photojournalism club for people 16+ to engage with others through documentary photography, so they can express their identity and raise awareness of issues they face, or care strongly about
▪ To organise exhibitions that showcase this work
▪ To blog my experiences and bring you on the journey with me
The training is in Kathmandu and you may well ask, "Why does Sam have to go all the way to Nepal when he could go somewhere closer to home?" In a nutshell: it is an opportunity to learn skills I can pass to others from a top-level documentary photographer, and it offers excellent value. The tutor, Edwin Koo, is an international award-winning and humanitarian photojournalist, well known for his black and white imagery dealing with issues of human displacement and the lost sense of identity. He believes strongly in teaching the value of connecting with people and observing without an opinion, to discover real stories instead of following clichéd lines of enquiry. The masterclass provides one-to-one teaching from Edwin and a photojournalist "buddy" for the duration, runs for 8 days and costs US$1,500. In comparison to other workshops approaching the same level that cost between US$4,000-6,5000.
Please take a look at his acclaimed body of work, "A Strange Place Called Home".
Edwin Koo [pic: IPA]
The real pay-off of this project is that I can bring back a powerful story that will enable me to work with youngsters in my hometown Swindon. My aim is to guide and teach them to create a voice through visual storytelling, and how to use photography to document their own and each other’s lives. I want to make photojournalism accessible for them to open up and feel better connected, bringing new purpose and meaning to the environment around them. My long-term goal is to inspire more people to become real-life storytellers, so they can find a vehicle to express themselves and raise awareness of what matters to them.
To help achieve this, I am in the process of starting a photojournalism club in Swindon - for anyone to join, to be launched in spring 2015.
The story “Firefly” that I plan to cover during the 8-day course is about Indira Ranamagar, founder of Prisoners Assistance Nepal, and the children she rescues from prison. Her own journey is an inspiration in itself - coming from a rural village in Nepal, she worked hard for an education that led her to become a school-teacher and then a human rights worker. Indira has just received the 2014 World Children's Prize Honourary Award for her 20-year struggle changing attitudes in her society and transforming the future for Nepal's imprisoned children.
Indira and a young girl leaving prison to begin a new chapter [pic: Pradeep Kc]
Why am I doing this project?
In an age of relentless, doom-laden headlines and touch-screen socializing, it often feels like something “real” is missing from our news-feeds... Social media has revolutionised our lives and the pace of information, but has it also diluted the value of our experiences? Even our technology is designed to scroll at speed, seamlessly through never-ending screens of updates - while news channels roll the same few stories every hour, leaving us desensitised to the reality of other people’s worlds. And I wonder sometimes,... are we losing the opportunity to “share” something real about ourselves, because of the increasingly unreal way we interact?
I’m interested in using photography to produce a documentary point-of-view to reveal the coincidences, parallels or elements we can connect with in other people’s lives. Even if it’s someone we’ve never met or a place we’ve never been to. The story in Kathmandu provides a unique opportunity to do just that. It is an inspiring example, of one person tackling a social issue like child welfare, believing they can make a difference - and succeeding.
We all have stories worth sharing, even if they’re not ours. But how many get told in a way that lets others experience being there?
One of the KIO students learning visual storytelling [pic: Labesh C'rsta Lopez]
By introducing that story element, the impact of photojournalism becomes a powerful catalyst. Saying a thousand words in one glimpse, it engages us to see life differently and brings with it new references for our understanding. Shocking images might disturb us, though only so we can find peace from the trauma we see. But so do images of warmth, compassion, courage and humour act like medicine on us, relieving our own troubles, as we witness the depth of humanity in someone else.
A Nepalese porter, known as a 'bhariya' [pic: Puspa Adhikari]
This project aims to harness that impact and use it to document “our bit”, the streets we walk on every day and the people we might know who rarely get a mention.
Living in urban pockets it’s easy for apathy to creep in, either we become dislocated from a sense of communal identity, or fall under the illusion that “nothing ever happens” in our town. Like cities across the world, my hometown is a hotbed of creative currents, talent and inspiring characters. But that culture isn’t as visible as it is in neighbouring places like Bristol, Bath or Oxford. With our info-packed lives and a media crammed with politics and celebrities, where do we go to learn about the people living around us, in our local community?
My plan is to encourage youngsters to take a look at documentary photography as a means of recording what is happening in and around their lives. To find the unknown and make it 'known', and to inform others: what we do, what we create, where we are from and what we’re going through. Or just to make a personal documentary, so someone else can relate to it… The idea is to create an alternative source for stories that helps us grow more conscious of each other's experiences and gives us new perspective to reframe our own.
One of the myriad of backstreets that criss-cross my hometown [pic: Sam Clements]
I’m interested in using photography to produce a documentary point-of-view to reveal the coincidences, parallels or elements we can connect with in other people’s lives. Even if it’s someone we’ve never met or a place we’ve never been to. The story in Kathmandu provides a unique opportunity to do just that. It is an inspiring example, of one person tackling a social issue like child welfare, believing they can make a difference - and succeeding.
We all have stories worth sharing, even if they’re not ours. But how many get told in a way that lets others experience being there?
One of the KIO students learning visual storytelling [pic: Labesh C'rsta Lopez]
By introducing that story element, the impact of photojournalism becomes a powerful catalyst. Saying a thousand words in one glimpse, it engages us to see life differently and brings with it new references for our understanding. Shocking images might disturb us, though only so we can find peace from the trauma we see. But so do images of warmth, compassion, courage and humour act like medicine on us, relieving our own troubles, as we witness the depth of humanity in someone else.
A Nepalese porter, known as a 'bhariya' [pic: Puspa Adhikari]
This project aims to harness that impact and use it to document “our bit”, the streets we walk on every day and the people we might know who rarely get a mention.
Living in urban pockets it’s easy for apathy to creep in, either we become dislocated from a sense of communal identity, or fall under the illusion that “nothing ever happens” in our town. Like cities across the world, my hometown is a hotbed of creative currents, talent and inspiring characters. But that culture isn’t as visible as it is in neighbouring places like Bristol, Bath or Oxford. With our info-packed lives and a media crammed with politics and celebrities, where do we go to learn about the people living around us, in our local community?
My plan is to encourage youngsters to take a look at documentary photography as a means of recording what is happening in and around their lives. To find the unknown and make it 'known', and to inform others: what we do, what we create, where we are from and what we’re going through. Or just to make a personal documentary, so someone else can relate to it… The idea is to create an alternative source for stories that helps us grow more conscious of each other's experiences and gives us new perspective to reframe our own.
One of the myriad of backstreets that criss-cross my hometown [pic: Sam Clements]
How The Funds Will Be Used
£900 KIO course (includes accommodation)
£600 Flight, visa, travel insurance
£200 Kathmandu expenses for 8 days
£120 Safety net
£180 Funding fees: 5% Pozible, 4% PayPal
£2,000 Total
I will be publishing a blog throughout the journey and duration of my stay in Kathmandu to report my progress and challenges to you guys… my generous Poz sponsors! You can learn with me, what its been like to run a crowd-funding project like this - and benefit from the experience of the masterclass yourself. I’ll also send you lots of behind the scene pictures and tell you about the children that Indira rescues from prison in Kathmandu,.. and I promise to make transparent all my costs. I'll also be making an eBook of the Firefly story, which is available in some of the rewards, for raising awareness of the social challenges that face not just Nepal, but all countries. And I'll be looking for budding photographers of any calibre, to join the club next spring and build a platform for telling real-life visual stories.
Would you like to help me ? You can become a contributor with just £1 upwards....
All pledges receive your name on the supporters list (unless you give anonymously), as a thank you.
The way crowd-funding works is it's all-or-nothing - meaning if I can't reach my target all the money is returned. If you like the idea and give your backing, please help me to encourage more people to support the idea and make it happen. Otherwise it won't! But if we can reach 200 generous people who would like to pledge £10, for example,.. then it will.
If enough pass-this-on and we reach 2,000 people who give just £1, that's when crowd-funding becomes powerful. So please join - even just for a £1 - and invite your friends to the crowd.
This project is not for £ profit. Any funds I don't spend I would like to donate to Prisoner Assistance Nepal - on behalf of us all. If you like what I'm trying to do, please pledge what you can, as soon as you can. There is just a 4 week window for fund-raising and if I'm lucky, there will be time to squeeze in an extra collection for Indira.
Please don't forget to pick a reward! I would like everyone to enjoy something in return for your contribution to help me implement these ideas I hope to show that when a crowd pulls together, we can encourage others to realize their creative projects too.
If you want to help me deliver this project, please spread the word by sharing this page on Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in or other social media (including e-mails)... and come to the virtual Facebook event (see below).
**********************************************************************************************************************
UPDATE: Your contributions will now be sent to Indira Ranamagar. Here is the acceptance speech she gave receiving 2014 World Children's Prize Honorary Award.
And here's a video about the work Indira does,...
Thank you for taking the time to read about this project - and for your support.
I hope you will feel it's a worthwhile contribution.
£600 Flight, visa, travel insurance
£200 Kathmandu expenses for 8 days
£120 Safety net
£180 Funding fees: 5% Pozible, 4% PayPal
£2,000 Total
I will be publishing a blog throughout the journey and duration of my stay in Kathmandu to report my progress and challenges to you guys… my generous Poz sponsors! You can learn with me, what its been like to run a crowd-funding project like this - and benefit from the experience of the masterclass yourself. I’ll also send you lots of behind the scene pictures and tell you about the children that Indira rescues from prison in Kathmandu,.. and I promise to make transparent all my costs. I'll also be making an eBook of the Firefly story, which is available in some of the rewards, for raising awareness of the social challenges that face not just Nepal, but all countries. And I'll be looking for budding photographers of any calibre, to join the club next spring and build a platform for telling real-life visual stories.
Would you like to help me ? You can become a contributor with just £1 upwards....
All pledges receive your name on the supporters list (unless you give anonymously), as a thank you.
The way crowd-funding works is it's all-or-nothing - meaning if I can't reach my target all the money is returned. If you like the idea and give your backing, please help me to encourage more people to support the idea and make it happen. Otherwise it won't! But if we can reach 200 generous people who would like to pledge £10, for example,.. then it will.
If enough pass-this-on and we reach 2,000 people who give just £1, that's when crowd-funding becomes powerful. So please join - even just for a £1 - and invite your friends to the crowd.
This project is not for £ profit. Any funds I don't spend I would like to donate to Prisoner Assistance Nepal - on behalf of us all. If you like what I'm trying to do, please pledge what you can, as soon as you can. There is just a 4 week window for fund-raising and if I'm lucky, there will be time to squeeze in an extra collection for Indira.
Please don't forget to pick a reward! I would like everyone to enjoy something in return for your contribution to help me implement these ideas I hope to show that when a crowd pulls together, we can encourage others to realize their creative projects too.
If you want to help me deliver this project, please spread the word by sharing this page on Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in or other social media (including e-mails)... and come to the virtual Facebook event (see below).
**********************************************************************************************************************
UPDATE: Your contributions will now be sent to Indira Ranamagar. Here is the acceptance speech she gave receiving 2014 World Children's Prize Honorary Award.
And here's a video about the work Indira does,...
Thank you for taking the time to read about this project - and for your support.
I hope you will feel it's a worthwhile contribution.
1 digital print
an image from the story for your screensaver or wallpaper, and a mention on the contributors list to say Thank you
7 chosen
Est. delivery is Mar 15
3 digital prints
a bundle of 3 of my favourite images from the Firefly story, for your screensaver or wallpaper. As a Big Thankyou for your support, all pledges include your name on the supporter's page of my blog
10 chosen
Est. delivery is Mar 15
6 digital prints
a bundle of 6 images from the story, for your screensaver or wallpaper
1 chosen
Est. delivery is Mar 15
An eBook of the story
an eBook of images telling the entire Firefly story in Kathmandu
5 chosen
Est. delivery is Mar 15
12 x 8 print, eBook
your choice of a 12" x 8" unframed print with a digital copy, plus an eBook of the story - which includes the digital bundle of 6 images
0 chosen / 20 available
Est. delivery is Mar 15
16 x 12 print, eBook
your choice of a 16" x 12" unframed print with a digital copy, the eBook of the story and digital bundle
0 chosen / 20 available
Est. delivery is Mar 15
16 x 12 canvas, eBook
your choice of a 16" x 12" canvas print with a digital copy, the eBook of the story and digital bundle [ + small shipping fee ]
0 chosen / 5 available
Est. delivery is Mar 15
20 x 16 canvas, eBook
your choice of a 20" x 16" canvas print with a digital copy, the eBook of the story and digital bundle [ + small shipping fee ]
0 chosen / 5 available
Est. delivery is Mar 15