South africa - 2012
You don’t take a photograph, you make it.
“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” This assertion by the American black-and-white photographer Ansel Adams (1902-1982) beautifully fits this project.
Indeed this project is about “making” in a double sense: On the one hand, the students “make” the pictures: by shedding light on their journey to school, they create intimate portraits of their lives, making decisions on what elements they wish to picture and which they prefer to omit. Through such a confrontation, they not only sharpen their awareness of what is already there, but they further make new discoveries as they look at life through a lens, from a different angle, in a new light. Be it in South Africa or in Luxembourg, this questioning, this critical thinking, this not always accepting and taking things for granted, is an invaluable lesson to learn. From it emerge new hopes and dreams, new motivations to learn; insights that will eventually contribute to help them “make it” in life.
So go ahead, look at the photographs, once, twice, three times… “take” them in and “make” them your own. Because this exchange not only happens between youngsters, between Lydenbourg and Luxembourg – it happens between all of us.
