|
Subscribe!
770-267-8371
|
|
Thursday
September 2, 2010
|
|
|
|
Marketplace
|
|
Sections
|
|
Service Center
|
|
 |
|
Local shutter bug to capture ‘hope’
Published May 3, 2009
WALTON COUNTY — It is a photo assignment that will take a community of dreamers on a journey around the world, capturing the essence of hope.
The camera lens will serve as a window to see beyond circumstances and context into the heart of what it means to truly be human.
That is how Walton County resident Stephanie Roberts and her Maryland partner Jen Lemen described what their dream assignment would be, and last week the photographers were named the winners of the “Name Your Dream Assignment” contest sponsored by Microsoft and Lenovo.
The duo, members of the online group Shutter Sisters, were awarded $50,000 to help live out their dream assignment as well as a Lenovo ThinkPad and a video camcorder to document their journey.
They have entitled their project “Picture Hope.”
“Hope doesn’t always come from people like you or me,” said Roberts. “I think there are people out there who are the beacon of hope despite what they have endured in life. We can learn so much from them.”
The two Shutter Sisters aim to, at each new destination, introduce a person who has become a living icon of hope — former modern-day slaves, genocide survivors, young activists, old visionaries and new immigrants. The body of images and video will become a “visual catalog for our hopeful world.”
While the destinations in between are still being hammered out, Roberts and Lemen are starting their journey by visiting Tanzania and Rwanda, talking to survivors of genocide. The journey will end in the hills of Nepal, where an American teenager has become the mother of 20 orphans “when she decided to follow her heart,” according to the dream assignment description.
As both photographers have families, they are breaking the trips up into five two-week journeys over 12 months, starting June 1, hoping to tell the stories of hope on five continents.
Roberts said the idea was born out of her and Lemen’s belief in focusing on the positive stories, finding beauty, goodness and hope in everyday life.
“We both kind of live on that side of the equation,” Roberts said.
Work has already begun. Beginning April 1 the Shutter Sisters community started gathering images of hope.
These images will be printed on tiny cards called “hope notes” and the duo will carry them wherever they travel to tell those they meet people are listening.
Now the goal will be to shine a light on the hope found in desperate places.
“We are going to seek out these beacons of hope,” Roberts said. “A lot of what I have been shooting is beauty and intrigue in everyday life. I’ve lived an easy life here in the U.S. I am very eager to experience life in a variety of cultures.
“I am going to have to erase what I know and embrace what these people have gone through. I am going to push the boundaries for what I know and believe. But I feel ready for this. It has created a sense of peace within me.”
Share |
Save |
Mail |
Print
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
