A Visit to the Exposure Gallery

Wandering down Wellington Street to visit the Exposure Gallery, we intended to see photographs taken by Girls in Longido, displaying their daily lives and the village. Upon arriving at the gallery, most of the exhibit had been taken down but we were provided with a pamphlet that detailed images and descriptions from the exhibit.

The exhibit, entitled “E is for Education” features the work of 42 girls who were part of a 10 week programme in fall 2013 run by TEMBO, an Ottawa based NGO which supports girls’ education in northern Tanzania.

The photographers, aged 13-16, had never handled a camera before but they eagerly embraced the challenge of capturing images of their environment and selecting photos that matched each letter of the alphabet. For example, they chose a game called X-Bamboucha to match the letter X. Their photos capture unique glimpses of the culture and environment through the eyes of these young women. The images are joyful and vibrant and they reflect the girls’ intrinsic connection with their culture and environment. Once they chose the best photos, the girls wrote texts to accompany each one. In doing this, the girls give context to the photos and act as interpreters to help the viewers develop a deeper understanding of the values that shape and bind this rich culture.

- exposuregallery.info/e-is-for-educationproject-tembo/  , September 2014

 The photography was fantastic and informative. It was a great opportunity to get insight into how the the girls live and showed their perspective views of the village through their eyes.

Certain images provided great value. The image of X-Bamboucha, a game played by the children, provided an idea as to how they play and use recreational time. Another photograph of a group of girls jumping captioned, "It feels good to jump because it fills me with joy." gives further insight into play and joyful emotions. both these images provide starting points for research into recreation and play and how this might impact play structures in the town.

Images of produce give an idea of how food is kept, what kind of food is eaten etc. For example, onions and cucumbers were present in images. It was interesting to see that the kitchen was an outdoor structure, kept separate from the home. Images of Laundry and the captions that followed indicated the Laundry was done every day. This prompts the need for further research into cooking and cleaning practices common in the area and how the use of water comes into play.

It was interesting to see an image of smiling women pointing to Mount Longido. This image was captioned "We like to climb Mount Longido, We get drinking water from the mountain." Research will be done into  the details of the process. This will play a role in design opportunities for  water collection.