This is about what unites us.

Le Chemin de l’École (engl: The Journey to School) is a participatory photography project produced in an educational environment that involvies students from schools in various parts of the world. It seeks to open the single and public mind to the world that surrounds it – in this particular case: the world of young students and their journey to school.

By giving them a camera, we give a voice to children around the world whose voices are seldom heard. While harnessing the full power of photography to transcend language and speak to the human heart directly, the photographs the students produce often come across like a subtle scream, like a silent affirmation, a message to the world that makes us reminisce the poet Walt Whitman’s famous “Answer”:   

That you are here—that life exists and identity,

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

By doing so – by contributing their verse, their picture – they help illustrate commonalities and all together develop a coherent work that represents the state of our societies as seen through the observant eyes of these young people.   

Thus, the purpose of this project is not of polemical or comparative nature, but more so a celebration of each participant’s personal and visual reflection on their life, conditions, aspirations and responsibilities. As such, it does not intend to compare and stigmatize people who, because of external reasons, do not enjoy the same educational and social opportunities than others. On the contrary, Le Chemin de L’Ecole actively seeks to specifically challenge such stereotypes and misconceptions that arise from these conditions. Rather than parading the negative aspects of a place or population, we wish to highlight the positives that arise from having an educational structure in a community.

This journey to school is often, at first, the lowest and seemingly only common denominator among many of these young people all over the world, but once you look at their pictures, you realize that no matter where these young people are from there is so much more they share. Thus, bottom line and simply put, this project is about what unites us, not what separates us.