Dog Meets World
While traveling the world, a woman named Carolyn Lane often took pictures of children as they played with Foto, the small stuffed toy likeness of her real dog back home. After taking the pictures, she shared the images on the camera's digital screen with her subjects and saw their faces light up. A thought struck Carolyn – what would it be like to actually give these children an actual picture that she had just taken of them with Foto? With the advent of take and print photography and easily transportable photo printers, Carolyn started the Dog Meets World project to spread what she terms “photo diplomacy”. Through her travels she came to discover just how many people in the world do not own a picture of their children, or even of themselves. One of the main goals of this project is to get photos into the hands of those that may have never had their picture taken before and have never held their own pictures in their hands.
The Dog Meets World project came to Costa Rica with the help of a Peace Corps Volunteer and now a Dog Meets World photo printer is traveling around the country to volunteer's sites to take and share photography with those who otherwise might not have the opportunity. Recently, I got a hold of the portable printer and the stuffed animal Foto to share the experience in my community.
One of the big problems that many volunteers have come across is, based on the limited number of photos we can reasonably take and print and keep passing it on to other volunteers, is who to take and share photos with. Because of the small size of my town, I decided to focus on the 13 students who attend my local elementary school (only 11 showed up the day of the project).
The great thing about doing it at the school was not only the possibility to share photography with children who normally don't have the recourses to take and print pictures of themselves, but the ability to teach a little at the same time. Through the project I was able to teach a bit about printing and, due to how the printer works, about color mixing. The printer works by taking the blank sheet of paper and passing it through the printer a total of 4 times, each time adding a new color to the paper. Thus, the children (and me!) got to see the pictures take shape before our very eyes as they first passed through yellow, then red/magenta, then blue, and finally a clear photo finish. We took and printed around 13 pictures or so (11 individual pictures, 1 with the kids and the teacher, and one with me and the kids) and we never got tired of watching the pictures pass through the phases of yellow, then red, then magically a normal picture. It was, even for me, fascinating to watch.
The best part would have to be seeing the faces of the children when they received their pictures. There were a few students from wealthier families who didn't focus on the project that much. But this project wasn't for them. It was for those students whom I think don't have very many, if any, pictures of themselves. The faces of these children were fixed on the printer, watching their image take shape, and then their faces lit up when they got to receive their own personal picture, for free, to enjoy. (Each picture comes with the date printed on it, so they can remember when it was taken.) Those were the kids that really made the project worth while. It made me think how many of us take for granted the ability to take, print, and have pictures of ourselves from all throughout our lives. The fact that scrapbooking is a major hobby in the United States is evidence to that. There's nothing like that down here, and photo albums, if a family actually has one, aren't nearly as large as the ones my family had when I was growing up. For these reasons, Dog Meets World is a great project to share with those who haven't shared the same opportunities I may have had as a child. And I think the smiles in the photos speak for themselves.
dogmeetworld.org
Pura Vida
Kyle
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