Between World Cup and a certain house guest, I've got Germany on my mind.
In February 2002, my husband, Joel Lerner, and I finally accepted an invitation to do a PICTURE THIS project at Trifels Gymnasium in Annweiler Germany. We shot with the Trifels kids for three days: two days of portraits at Trifels and a bookstore, plus a Saturday around town joined by other professional photographers. One evening we did a presentation with Trifels student at a local cultural association event, which was a hit.
This was just one more feature of PTP's ongoing project "Our World" initiated in 1996 by a visit from Astrid Maciejewski and her then 10-year old son Daniel. Astrid and Daniel participated in the last day of the 1996 City Safari project and helped the kids pick images for the project's exhibition. Within the year, Astrid and Daniel, with help from Trifels students and faculty and other interested community members, had mounted two exhibitions. The opening receptions included readings of Langston Hughes work and a jazz band. A few sales were made too.
Later Trifels students sent images our way. They were assembled in a presentation book and shared with one person at a time, a traveling laptop photo exhibition (without the laptop computer). Close to 100 people saw this traveling exhibition. Most hand-wrote a comment about their reaction to the images and slipped them into a sleeve adjacent to the picture (a blog without the computer). This exhibition with the comments went back to Germany; the kids were excited and at least one was stunned. One boy, not a shooter, but the subject of one of the photos, was amazed that people he never met, so far away, knew him so well merely by looking at a photo. Comments were translated into German and Trifels students incorporated them and the photos into a spoke-word piece they performed for that local cultural association when we came in 2002. It was funny and serious.
It has been 10 years since Astrid and Daniel's first visit to Chicago, thus launching the Our World project. Last month Daniel made the trip without mom, with girlfriend Maike. He's 20. Interested in everything. This trip is his adventure after finishing school and before he starts more studies...in photography and international business.
What's next for Our World? Stay tuned.
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