Exercise: Kingsmead Eyes.

Exercise: Kingsmead Eyes.

I viewed the 2009 project first, and as I write this part, have not seen the Kingsmead Eyes Speak project.

I found this a fascinating project where the children were given a free hand to photograph, and talk about, what they found important and interesting.  Their histories, hopes, and fears were laid out in front of us.  Whilst realising the pictures featured were to pick of the crop they were of a commendable quality and insightful.

This has been, and in some ways still is, a very troubled part of London, but there is a feeling in this presentation that in the hands of these young people the future will be better.

The presentation was a mix of still photography, comment and poetry presented in non patronising way.   The voices were quite clearly those of the young people featured who all spoke with candour about Kingsmead.

2011 Eyes.

It has taken three days to look at, and listen to, the Kingsmead Eyes Speak project This made it too big a project to take in easily.  I broke it down by looking first at the still images taken by the children, which alone was in the region of 400 photographs.  The quality was very variable, and on the whole, not as spontaneous as in the 2009 project.  

I found the short video clips far more interesting as they gave voice to the children.  The mix of stills, video and voice within each of them held my attention far more that going through the stills alone.

The poetry allowed the children to speak about their fears and dreams.  There was a theme running through them of former lives and countries, now half forgotten, and the fear of further upheaval and movement.  

For me the best peices were the ones involving the training of the children and the other done with the parents, and how they, the parents, related to the project.  Even in this short clip it was evident that the parents went from wariness and nervousness to fully active participants in the project.

The question posed was, how did it work as a whole?

For me it was too big; how many people, not involved with it, worked their way through the whole thing?  The 2009 project worked better for a number of reasons.  First, there was better editing of the photographs and there were fewer of them.  Second, the children seemed to have had a freer hand so the images were more spontaneous.   Third, I could take it in in one sitting.

I am sure the children, their parents, the school and the community got a lot from both of these projects but as pieces for wider viewing the 2009 piece worked better.