Jan 2010

We started out by trying to decide what we wanted to show in our exhibition. We have 2 Artists in residence, Bob and Jackie. Bob is a professional photographer who was going to show us how to take pictures. Jackie is a Creative Writing Specialist, Poet and teacher. We also have John from Ryburn Valley High School, who is the Media Support Manager and knows lots of stuff about Podcasting, photography and film, and then there is Karen, who provided biscuits and tea, and sometimes butties too!

There are 4 groups of people involved in our project: GALYIC (Gay and Lesbian Youth In Calderdale), PRU (Pupil Referral Unit), RVHS year 12 Vocational Skills group and year 9 Media Club, and ‘In Touch’, who are a group of older people who are going to talk to us about what life was like when they were kids. All the young people involved are aged between 13 and 19 and we hope to get 30 of us working on the project. at the moment ther are about 20 teenagers, so Karen is trying to find some more to make up the numbers.

Our first session was really interesting, we got to know each other and had a go with the cameras. The year 9s met the Older people and they showed them some photos of when they were younger. Ivy, Robin, Esme and Elaine are all over 60, Elaine is actually 92 so they have lots to tell us about. Ivy brought in some pictures of when she was in the WRENs, and worked as an engineer on an aeroplane in the war. She was about 19 at the time - we can’t imagine doing that.

Bob showed the GALYIC girls about how to take a good picture. Don’t use a flash! The pictures are all bleached out if you do. We messed around with different lighting and got all ‘moody’. Couldn’t wait for the next session! Bob says to bring in props like hats and stuff that say something about us.

The Vocational skills group are young adults with some special needs. Jackie did some stuff with them about poetry and Bob took some some photos with them. these are going to be used later on in the project. They talked about what they wanted to do as their part of the project. They talked about friendship and relationships in the group, what they liked about each other. It’s all a bit embarrasing but nice to see people being so positive. They picked the idea of doing a big collage photo of one of the members of their group - Tom. They will make this out of photos of the others, all stuck on a big board.

Bob also did some stuff with the PRU guys, taking photos of them to show them how we can change pictures on the computer. Jackie also talked to them about poetry and writing and is going to come up with some stuiff to ‘inspire’ them to write their own poetry. Some of the girls in the group are already good poets so it will be great to see how their work changes.

So that’s it so far. Karen is on the search for another group to get involved, and the young people are getting inspired. Can’t wait for the weather to warm up and the evenings to get lighter so we can go outside with the cameras. Pass the Jaffa Cakes!