Thank you Flickr on Flickr – Photo Sharing! Nathalie Pahud-Briquet is a teacher at Laney Community College in Oakland. At Laney College she is working on a project called “Bridge to the World.”
From Nathalie’s Flickr profile: “Students from inner city backgrounds come to college to try and get back on tracks and get an education. They learn how to write, read, count. Their stories used to be photocopied to create a booklet. I shall help them create their own blogs. We are trying to raise a fund to buy 20 cameras and a laptop so that the students can report on their lives and illustrate their writings and eventually publish a book.”
Kimjo, Johnny, Alexis, Amaranth, Jeramey, Cynthia, LeVar, Krystal and Leslie are the first participants in Nathalie’s program. Flickr users Dale and Robert have provided cameras. And Flickr, apparently has given these individual’s free Flickr Pro accounts.
Photography can be such an amazing tool to empower. It can be used to create art. It can be used to make a living. It can be used to produce journalism. It can be used to document and archive our lives richest and most memorable experiences.
It’s really great that Nathalie is helping those who might not be able to afford it otherwise learn and experience what it means to have a voice with a camera and a blog. I hope her program continues to grow and expand and provide more and more people this opportunity.