Foko Madagascar!

After being inspired by David Sasaki's (of Global Voices) presentation at the Soul of the New Machine Conferece at UC Berkeley, I decided to send an email to him. I wanted to link up with the blogging group that Global Voices was supporting in Madagascar. Luckily for me, he answered my note and my friend Christi was able to coordinate a meeting with Stephane of Foko Madagascar. After deciding on a date, time and place the Photography workshop was ready to go.
The workshop was wonderful. We had about 25 people attend, some old and new Foko members, a few journalists, and a film maker. I structured the workshop in two main parts. The first half we discussed and look at examples from the history of photojournalism, the contemporary issues of digital alteration and manipulation, and what it means to be a citizen photojournalist. We collectively came up with guidelines for the members to abide by when using photography on their blogs. The list we came up with is as follows:
1. Pure Images-no digital alteration of images-simple changes are ok, like cropping, color balancing, etc.
2. Ask! -When appropriate ask permission from your subject, to take their picture, to publish it (online, in print) etc.
3.Safety! -No pornography or other compromising images.
4. Permission-Use images you have taken or ask permission to use another's (and give proper credit)
5. Context-Provide caption information and context for your images

Even though the above guidelines seem like they don't belong in an intro to photography workshop, they do! These five steps seperate leisure photographers from photojournalists. By adding an element of conciousness to the photographs that people create I am hoping to infuse a little more thought behind the actions of taking pictures and sharing them online. These ideas help to protect not only the creator of the image, but the subject as well.

The second half of the workshop we discussed how to create stronger images by paying attention to framing, the subject, the lighting, and the elements in the image. I also went over the technical aspects of photography, specifically for the cameras that everyone was using (mainly point and shoot digital). We discussed how to control the flash, the exposure, the ISO, and the other features on their cameras. Many of the participants had been shooting only in automatic mode. Hery said " This is a whole new camera now! I feel like a kid at christmas time!"

To read the blogs of Madagascar and what they thought about the workshop (or what they think about in general) please check out these:
Tahina
Rising Voices
MadaFan
Hery