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| bSmart Guide |
Motivational Story: Social Entrepreneur Babita Patel Founder of View Finder (VIDEO)
- April 02, 2013
You’re Invited to a bSmart Featured Event:
BB Contemporary Presents View Finder Workshop: Haiti 2013Thursday, April 11th7:00 – 9:00 PM308 at 156 Project Art Space156 Fifth Avenue, Suite 308New York, NY 10010Featuring photographs taken by 18 Haitian children enslaved as domestic servants, the proceeds from the event will be used to support the photography club at their school, Respire Haiti, and benefit the next photography workshop in Nairobi, Kenya. Enjoy drinks, hors d’oeuvres and music as you view the latest works from View Finder Workshop: Haiti 2013.
Buy advanced tickets here for $25 or $30 at the door.
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Hosted by bSmart Member: Babita Patel, Founder of View Finder Workshop
Curated by bSmart Member: Lindsay Sullivan of BB Contemporary
Official sponsors: 308 at 156 Project Art Space, Duggal Visual Solutions, and 799 Art Gallery & Custom Framing
Motivational Story
About the Event
Who took the pictures of the photography on display at View Finder Workshop: Haiti 2013?
In January 2013, View Finder partnered with Respire Haiti, a school in Gressier, Haiti that provides elementary and high school education to restaveks (children enslaved as domestic servants) and other poverty-stricken children. The United Nations describes the reality confronted by restaveks as a form of modern-day slavery. Restaveks are given to or brought into the homes of people who are not blood relatives, and forced to take care of the other children in the home and maintain the upkeep of the home. The children are often abused and denied the chance to go to school. While taboo, this practice is omnipresent in Haitian culture and affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of children.
What is the curriculum View Finder Workshop taught the students?
Each day of the workshop the children were given different assignments to shoot. Wrapped inside each assignment was a bigger lesson. For example, Patterns & Shadows helped the children become comfortable with the different features of a camera while giving them a chance to look at their school campus with different eyes. At the end of the session, several of the students commented they never saw the beauty of their school before. In Natural vs. Unnatural, the children noticed what belongs in their environment and what does not, specifically the trash that litters their country. They started to ask what it would require of themselves and their country to not have the trash littered on the streets. Best Part of Me was designed to help the children understand self-portraiture in a manner that built their self-confidence by focusing on their body in a positive light.
Can you tell us about a few of the pieces we’ll be seeing?
The show will feature limited editions of photographs taken by the restaveks and other vulnerable children from our photography workshop in Gressier, Haiti. One of my favorite photographs is by 11-year-old Fenickson who was trying to photograph a truck when a cow ran in front of it, creating one of the funniest scenes I have ever seen in a print - the image was not what he was aiming for, but I think it turned all the better for the mishap. Another photograph is Robertline’s Sky image - it is a haunting mix of dark clouds and the sun that often gets mistaken for the moon. Robertline shot it during the noon hour when the hot Haitian sun is directly overhead. When you look at the image, it is impossible to imagine how she captured it without retouching. We are also having a silent auction of my photographs taken during previous trips to Haiti as companion pieces to the children's photography. The show is being curated by BB.Contemporary founders Lindsay Sullivan and Natasha Ulyanov.
Who receives the proceeds from the sale of the photographs?
Proceeds from the sales of the photographs will support the newly established photography club View Finder created at Respire Haiti. We donated all of the equipment we brought down for the workshop to the school and gave leadership roles to two students from the workshop to manage the club after the workshop. Proceeds will also go towards the next photography workshop View Finder will hold in Nairobi, Kenya later this year.
About View Finder Workshop
What is the mission of View Finder Workshop?
View Finder Workshop empowers vulnerable children in impoverished areas of the world through photography. Our mission is to provide the means and resources for children living in challenging circumstances to unleash their creative talents, recognize and celebrate their individuality, combat discrimination, and envision their lives through a different lens. Literally.
What gave you the idea to create View Finder Workshop?
I was walking through Cité Soleil in Haiti and I snapped a picture of a group of rambunctious kids, only to have eager young hands grab at my camera to see the image captured on my screen. I realized that for children who have next to nothing, a mirror is a luxury. I never realized a person could walk through life without knowing his or her own reflection. Photography can change that. It lets a child see himself or herself through different eyes and by learning tangible skills & creating new avenues of self-expression, they can contribute to their community. And that's when the seeds for View Finder Workshop was planted.
What are you teaching the children technically about photography?
The children were taught how to zoom in and out in order to tell a different story about their subjects. An extension of that is cropping, how leaving something out of frame is just as important as what is in frame. They also learned to move around, up and down in order to get the shot they want.
What are you teaching the children personally about themselves and the world around them?
The goal of the workshop is for the children to see themselves and the world around them differently. To notice the details in the things & people they see everyday. What those details are & what they mean. To find something beautiful in themselves & the school & community. The ability to take something that is ugly like trash and be able to photograph it in a way that makes it beautiful–that there is beauty in all things, not in just the expected things.
How many workshops do you host per year?
We host two to four workshops per year with a gallery show after each workshop to share the children’s achievements with our supporters. View Finder's next workshop is scheduled for Nairobi later this year.
How much does each workshop cost? What does the money purchase?
The cost of each workshop can range from $10,000 to $20,000 depending on location, flights and costs on the ground. We are conservatively budgeting $15,000 for the Kenya Workshop. Every piece of equipment we bring to the workshop will remain with the partnering school to create and expand the students’ newly formed photography clubs. Prices for some each item are as follows:
$15 : camera case
$20 : rechargeable batteries
$25 : memory card
$30 : one ink cartridge
$150 : hard drive
$175 : camera
$200 : paper
$250 : printer
$1,500 : laptop
How can bSmart members support View Finder?
Any little donation makes a HUGE impact. Every member card ($25 each) allows us to work with one more child. The kids can print their pictures if they have printer paper ($200). Corporate sponsors for the workshops and the gallery shows makes a big difference. Introductions to big donors and potential partnering organizations all help us meet our goals. Donations can come in all forms too, not just monetary. Social media, sharing the Workshops with friends and family, buying prints all make a difference in supporting the View Finder Workshops.
Social Entrepreneur
About Babita Patel
Tell us about your background as a professional photographer!
I was an Art Director in advertising when I began to combine my love of travel and photography. While trekking around Tibet, Nepal & India, I realized there were stories in this world that simply weren’t getting the attention they deserved, specifically the work of non-profits that serve the impoverished. Whether it was from lack of funds or using cliché imagery, these organizations were not garnering the level of attention they needed. My background in advertising helped me transition to photography not just with the aesthetics, but also in the strategy business sense. I knew how to connect an organization’s mission, solve its problem by insightful concepts that make a difference, an impact with the targeted audience.
What’s the difference between good photography and great photography?
Yes, great photography will have the technical aspects of composition, exposure and lighting. But more importantly, great photography will be able to connect a viewer with the subject through the story it tells. The viewer will experience the subject in a new manner, one that would never have happened otherwise.
What are your greatest lessons learned in founding View Finder Workshop?
I learned that anything is possible. I never thought it was in me to create something from scratch and become a leader in it, inspiring those around me with my mission. I now know I need to ask for what I want and the bigger the ask, the greater chance of receiving it.
What do you want all bSmart members to know about your story that would help them bSmart too?
Take action! I had this little gem of a moment on my first trip to Haiti which created this little gem of an idea. It would have sat in the corners of my life if one day, I had not decided to simply go for it. We all have these little great ideas but never happen because we overthink the whole process: I don’t have time, I don’t know what I’m doing, let me just get a raise before I do something, blah blah blah. Just put your head down and do it. Yes, you’ll figure it out as you go. But the more important thing is that you’re doing it. Your one little spark will lead to another spark that will trigger another spark that will turn into a blaze. And you’ll be living this big and full life that you love. Then one day, you’ll poke your head up to take stock of your life and simply wonder what you were doing with your life before you took on this big game.
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