Photo Essays

One of the tools that we will use in our Education Program to have children and adults alike think about and reflect upon their natural surroundings and the values that they attribute to the environment, is a Photo Essay (or Photo Novella) activity. During this activity, participants are given a specific problem or theme to consider. They then disperse around their community in search of a photo that best captures their specific feelings about that particular topic. Although participants are invited to explain their selection, the hope is that the photos will tell the story; a picture is worth a thousand words, no!?

There is a really well done photo essay by a team of CI Staff that came from Washington to help with the initial design of our Raja Ampat Education Program. You can have a look at the people I work with and the villages in this part of the world! (not sure why I'm not in any of the pics... guess they don't want to show too much BULE (whitie) presence ;) haha!)


An interesting note, creating a photo essay may sound like like a simple exercise to all of you... but here of course, we will have to preface the activity with a lesson on how to use a camera! There are no cameras here, and when tourists or NGO workers come in with these novel gadgets it's a free-for-all; everyone wants to take pictures of their entire family and community in every possible combination! So, we shall see: can they overcome the excitement of the new toy and settle down to the task?


I recently found another Photo Essay about Raja Ampat online which you can all enjoy... Although I have been trying to share with you tidbits of the underwater world here, it perhaps does a better job of showing you the wonders of where we are! (This is a CI pic of a Manta Ray... I still haven't seen one underwater) Excellent Photo Essay by David Doubilet (famed nature photographer) online at National Geographic’s website. Just click on the underlined, linked text, for those of you who are techno-stars!)




There is also an article in the National Geographic magazine.

Enjoy!