‘Kabul Kids’ exhibition
Six orphans from Kabul, Afghanistan
This event has concluded
Dates:
-
Hours:
Entry Fee:
Free
Between Friday 18th – Sunday 20th November, Kabul Kids, a stirring collection of images from a group of six talented young orphaned Afghan photographers, will visit the esteemed China Heights Gallery in Sydney’s Surry Hills followed by a week-long installment at Parramatta’s cultural and artistic hub Information Cultural Exchange (ICE) from Friday 25th November.
Kabul Kids is the result of a photography project that was undertaken in 2009 by Sydney-based freelance photographer Palwesha Yusaf, aiming to shed light on the perspectives of children in conflict situations while providing a creative outlet to the children of war-ravaged Afghanistan.
A group of children (three female, three male) between the ages of nine and eighteen years from Hope House, a Kabul orphanage run by Australian aid organisation Mahboba’s Promise, took part in several photography workshops covering composition, light, subject and technique. They were then handed a camera with which to document their life and explore their creativity both within and outside of the orphanage enclave.
The result is a series of images that depict intimate scenes of friendship and communal living at the orphanage, creating something akin to an ‘orphan’s family album’. Other images depict honest and compelling street scenes from the centre of Kabul and its surrounding environment, with some of the most raw coming from the eldest participant, Ibrahim, who has since gone on to enrol with the AINA photo media agency in Kabul.
On the evening of Friday 25th November, a panel discussion comprising a selection of public spokespersons will take place at ICE; covering topics including the universal experience of the child, representations of trauma and questioning the media-bred illusion of the hostile male. The date of the discussion falls on the International day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which will be covered by the panel. ShutterSeed Director Palwesha Yusaf will take the stage for this one-off event, with SBS Dateline’s Yalda Hakim, and highly acclaimed performance poet Candy Royalle, which will be moderated by Kabul Kids curator Alex Bellemore.
Artworks will be available for sale during the course of the exhibition, with all proceeds to be donated to Hope House Orphanage via ACFID accredited Non-Government Organisation Mahboba’s Promise.
Don’t miss this eye-opening exhibition, which promises to deliver an alternate, insightful and ultimately optimistic perspective on one of the world’s most war-torn regions.
Opening night – CHINA HEIGHTS GALLERY
Time: 6 – 9pm
Date: Friday 18th November
Address: 3/ 16-28 Foster Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Panel discussion – ICE
Time: 6:30 pm
Exhibition open from 6 – 9pm
Date: Friday 25th November
Address: 8 Victoria Road (Switch Digital Arts Centre)
Parramatta NSW 2150
Kabul Kids will remain on display at ICE from Friday 25th November – Thursday 1st December 2011.
Proudly supported by: High Res Digital Imaging Giclee Australia, plantsonline.com.au, ArtWhatsOn.
About ShutterSeed:
ShutterSeed was founded in 2009 by freelance photographer Palwesha Yusaf.
With a background in aid and community development work, ShutterSeed was born from Palwesha’s
interest in the way in which photography can be used in rights activism to break down misconception and
suspicion of marginalised communities. With the aim of teaching photography as a skill to marginalised
communities, ShutterSeed aims to create a reciprocal relationship between photographers and the
communities they often use as subjects.
ShutterSeed aims to reverse the concept of simply ‘taking a photograph’ to one of exchange, skills-sharing,
knowledge and stories as part of the exercise of capturing images for the photographer and the
photographed communities. ShutterSeed also aims to higlight the positive effects of ‘photographed’
communities representing themselves through their own photography.
ShutterSeed began with a pilot project in the Sydney suburb of Auburn with several youth from refugee
backgrounds. This was followed by a trip to Kabul, Afghanistan in 2009 to work with 6 orphans in the Hope
House orphanage.
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