Thru' a kid's viewfinder

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: “Photography is not only for adults. Children can also do photography as good as some adults. They should be given a chance to express their point of view,” opined Anne Lelong, teacher of The French School of Kathmandu, Lazimpat.

And this is exactly what you can find in the exhibition ‘Faces and Landscapes’ — a project of the French International School where 21 primary students from six to 10 age group have captured portraits and landscapes. Forty photographs are hung on the walls of Alliance Francaise in Kathmandu, Tripureshwor starting from May 15.

There are portraits of students themselves. Their expressions of joy, happiness, satisfaction are crystal clear in the photographs. Old Nepali men and their smiling faces have been well captured. In one picture, a grandfather is holding a child and in another there is a little boy with a pile of straw.

In the Landscape section, they have tried to capture nature and environment they see around them. Beautiful views of hills and fields along with blue sky are picturesque.

And the children have played with different colours, shadows and lights in the Colors, Shadows and Lights section. The photographs here are colourful and include a playing tunnel with different colours, blue chairs, to name a few.

Using compact digital cameras, they have expressed their ideas and thoughts in the photographs some of which are in black-and-white.

For Axel Renoir, one of the participants, the project was “exciting as we learnt to make nice picture on frame”. Moreover, Fleur Clerc, another student shared, “We learnt how to do real photography,” adding that she likes to capture people in her photographs.

Noah Knapp informed that they know how to take good pictures unlike before when they took pictures of anything.

Seeing the kind of works her students have come up with, Lelong “is proud of them”.

In the four-month long project, she taught them from what is photography to take pictures outside their school to technical aspects. “The children themselves selected what to exhibit and the title of the photographs as well.” she added.

The exhibition is on till May 21.