Out of the Mouths of Babes

The camera lens acts like a special filter, seeing and capturing things that the naked eye won't. A photograph tells a truth - but a particular truth with an unclear (but real) bias. Esteeming the work of only one photographer is like saying there is only one side to the story. And while photography is an art, it is an easily accessible one for the very reason that many contributors help to create a fuller picture.

Lest we forget the feeling of looking straight into the bellybuttons and belt buckles of our elders, craning our necks while talking to teachers, and fitting comfortably on the hips of our caretakers, this photograph of two boys in the sun stands as a reminder. Captured on film by one of my little Haitian friends, this scene tells at once as much about the subject as the photographer - who didn't wait for the "perfect" moment to activate the shutter, who held the camera a slight angle, who didn't bother or know to fix the settings.

As we grow, we not only forget what it was like to be young mentally, we forget what it felt like to be short, small, invisible in a crowd... Putting a camera in the hands of a child and letting a lens do the looking opens a chapter in a book that closed as we entered adolescence. The picture to the right, by another youngster at Pwoje Espwa, betrays a vulnerability difficult for any adult artist to convey.

Photographer Jeffrey Mills (no relation - but hailing from a town not too far from that of my Canadian ancestors) started a project called The Young Haitian Documentary Photographers Group - "social justice through art."

Before this trip [to Haiti], Jeff watched the documentary film "Born into
Brothels." He was inspired. Amazing things can happen when cameras are put into
the hands of youth. Although the purpose of his trip was to volunteer on a road
crew in the mountains above the town of St. Marc, Jeff also brought cameras and
conducted two photography workshops for students. This was the first time these
young photographers had used cameras.

This Canadian photographer helps enable the voices of the Haitian youth and gives their voices a platform.