Le Chemin de l’Ecole is a participatory photography project produced in an educational environment involving students from schools in various parts of the world. During 4 or 5 days, we distribute cameras to the participants and ask them to photographically document their daily journeys to school:

They start shooting when they wake up and stop once they arrive at school - the school itself is not what we are interested in, it’s the journey there that we wish to experience with them. By pushing the shutter of their cameras from the moment they open their eyes in the morning until they reach school, the young photographers often share private and intimate moments: waking up, hygiene or make-up, breakfast, riding buses, trains, cars, animals or simply walking, as well as any and all spaces and moments they encounter along their way. Day to day moments are seen through a new light, a different lens, from another angle – and thus not only gain significance, but undoubted beauty.

The students are the sole creators and authors of the images, all we do is maybe give them a little technical advice when needed. We go through and discuss their pictures in groups every day so as to make sure they are on track with the topic and to provide them with constructive feedback. And of course to show them their own work.

Their pictures are then presented in joint exhibitions and catalogues with pictures from children from other schools; sometimes from the same countries, but most often from different corners of the world. If there are images the children do not wish to be used they let us know and we respect their wish in our final choice.