It’s All About Perspective
(Original)

Sophia Palenberg
(Age 16, USA / UK)
The American School in London

He was around my age at the time of his death. He was bright, and loved by his family, but that was all that I knew and would ever know about him. Perhaps I would have met him on a train to some nearby destination, or read about him 20 years on, widely acclaimed for his cure of a disease. Instead, he had become a number. A statistic. A figure to add to the list of young victims of teenage violence in London this year.

Here, in an urban community formed of many different cultures, teenage murders are not a rare occurrence. But what really is a "community?" Perhaps I was living under the delusion that it always had a happy connotation. A community could range from people living in the same area to the senior chess club down the street. In essence, I thought, it is a place where we can belong. By this standard, a community that I would be part of would be that of the teenagers of London. However, when what a community has in common is malice, damage is inevitable. Teenagers who attack others for reasons ranging from personal differences (such as school resentments or prejudice) to being simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, can create a poisonous environment.

I believe that many of the teenagers and youth involved in gang violence have a hard time finding an alternate route out of their groups. Many times, the gangs provide the sense of belonging that the teens cannot find elsewhere. All human beings have an innate desire to belong. These gangs can be very appealing to those who want to be accepted.

My proposal is to start an alternative community to which young people can turn early on. It would be a bimonthly photography group of teenagers from different schools and areas of London. If the schools consent to the idea, the school would nominate three to four willing students to participate. The total number of teenagers would be about 20 students, so that it remains a somewhat small group. The cameras will be lent to and shared by the students throughout the year. The first few sessions will be dedicated to quick tutorials on basic photography and meeting one another. From then on, the meetings would be more casual and free-style: stating bi-monthly themes (such as "five pictures depicting your life up until yesterday"), and discussing and commenting on each other’s work. Everyone will be required to take photographs during the time in between sessions. If a participant does not wish to continue, the participant can leave but will always be welcome to return. At the end of the year, the photographs would be made into personal portfolios and the strongest ones displayed in public outlets as well as the participants’ schools. Every year, there would be new students.

The reason I chose photography is that while photograph is a personal art, others can appreciate it as well. While what we see is the same, we all interpret it in a different manner. In a way, it is similar to how we perceive people. Imagine a roomful of people observing a scene. Everyone would see the same scene, but perhaps one observer would see something about the scene that the others could not. It is when someone else can see something that you cannot that you start learning. My hope is that the photography will open everyone´s eyes to seeing through different perspectives. Everything can be seen from different angles, but there is often not a right or wrong way of interpreting, only different ways.

By having this mini-community of young photographers within the London youth community, students will, I hope, learn to see the world in a different way and feel closer to each other through common interests, closing gaps created by economic, cultural and social differences.