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Kliptown Photography Project

Teaching documentary photography and empowering the youth of Kliptown, South Africa

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Kliptown Photography Project

Kliptown Photography Project

Kliptown Photography Project

Kliptown Photography Project

Kliptown Photography Project

Teaching documentary photography and empowering the youth of Kliptown, South Africa

Teaching documentary photography and empowering the youth of Kliptown, South Africa

Teaching documentary photography and empowering the youth of Kliptown, South Africa

Teaching documentary photography and empowering the youth of Kliptown, South Africa

Jody DiPerna
Jody DiPerna
Jody DiPerna
Jody DiPerna
2 Campaigns |
Pittsburgh, United States
$6,920 USD 68 backers
32% of $21,500 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
Highlights
Mountain Filled 2 Projects Mountain Filled 2 Projects

What Is the Kliptown Photography Project? 

The Kliptown Photography Project is dedicated to teaching documentary photography and creating opportunities for the high school students of Kliptown, South Africa, one of the oldest informal settlements in Soweto.  Please come visit us on our new page.

Our goals are teach photography and empower our students to communicate visually. We want our students to come away able to use photography to advocate for themselves, their families and their neighbors. We will be teaching them skills which will help them succeed in the modern South African economy. By supporting our venture you can be part of this process.

We will initially be in Kliptown for a week and will run a photography workshop at the Kliptown Youth Program. The workshop has been developed by an American photographer who will be assisted by three dynamic young African photographers. With your financial support we will be able to provide digital equipment which would otherwise be unavailable to the students. We will teach them how to publish their photos to blogs and websites.

We believe that learning photography is a way to foster creativity and connection. The students will gain skills as they learn to take photographs, publish photos online, exhibit their work, and become powerful voices for their community. You can connect with them by helping us buy cameras, pay for teachers, and fund exhibitions of their work.

The cameras you help us buy will remain with the Kliptown Youth Program so they may continue this initiative when the workshop is completed.

Exhibitions of the photographs taken by the students and their teachers are planned for both South Africa and the United States. By helping us fund these exhibits, you will allow the students to realize the full potential of their work, both economically and as social capital. And you will help them generate funds for their community.

We are currently raising funds to run the photography workshop in Kliptown the first week of July, 2014. We are also raising money to cover the costs of mounting both exhibitions in Soweto and Pittsburgh, respectively. But right now, we need to purchase equipment and pay salaries. By donating to our project you will be helping the students from a neglected and impoverished community get started on a path to creativity, entrepreneurship, and advocacy.

All of us together—you as a donor, us as facilitators, the photography teachers, and the students—can all work together to develop a photography program at the Kliptown Youth Program, which will empower everyone involved and generate funds for the Youth Program. This is a small program with a big impact and your support is crucial to its success.

What Does Your Money Pay For?

  • CAMERAS
    We will be teaching 12 high school aged students who live in Kliptown. We are bringing the cameras for the students to use and when our workshop is complete, the cameras will remain in Kliptown, for continued use at the Kliptown Youth Program. In this way, your money is not a one-time gift. Our greatest hope is that the project will remain sustainable under the guidance of the staff at the KYP, and we will be working with them to ensure that this happens. One aim of our project is to train students so that they can set up an on-line gallery to continue to document their lives and share their stories with the world.

  • LOCAL INSTRUCTORS
    We have four instructors who will be teaching the week-long seminar. Our lead instructor, Heather Mull, is donating her time and expertise. However, we feel strongly that our local photographers (Jerry, Patrick and Tila) will provide an invaluable service to our students and should be paid for their time and work. The unemployment rate in South Africa hovers around 25% and among black South Africans, the unemployment rate is closer to 70%. We are honored to be able to employ three talented, passionate photographers for the week.

  • MEALS FOR OUR STUDENTS
    For the week of our workshop, we will be providing both breakfast and lunch for our students. Many of the residents of Kliptown skip meals or go an entire day without eating. We want our students working at their best.

  • THE EXHIBITIONS
    Two exhibitions are planned, one in Soweto and one in Pittsburgh. Your donation will help to defray the cost of printing and mounting the shows.

How Does This Benefit Kliptown? 

  • FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF THE KLIPTOWN YOUTH PROGRAM
    After the week-long seminar, KYP will be mounting exhibitions of the work. Prints will be available for purchase. All proceeds from the sale of photographs will go to the Kliptown Youth Program, which runs meal programs, tutoring, athletics and arts programs for the youth of Kliptown. Read more about the Kliptown Youth Program.

  • CREATIVE AND TECHNICAL SKILLS
    During our week-long seminar, our students will learn the elements of photography, not the least of which is to build a comfort level simply using otherwise unavailable digital equipment. The students will learn some fundamentals of shooting interiors, photographing portraits, and capturing social issues.

  • EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH DIGITAL CONTENT
    We will also be teaching the students how to work on online platforms, to upload photographs and create web-pages so they may continue to share their world with the rest of the world.

  • A PLATFORM FOR NEW STORYTELLERS
    One of the purposes of the Kliptown Youth Program is to eradicate poverty of the mind, body and soul. The Photo Project has taken that as our mandate, as well. Beyond learning new marketable skills, beyond sharing their world with us, beyond raising money, our greatest hope is that our students will learn to value their own stories and know that their voices matter.


Why Kliptown? 

Kliptown is one of the original areas established during the 1903 relocation process, when the ruling British minority forcibly moved African and Indian mine workers to an area outside of Johannesburg. Kliptown is part of the much larger area of Soweto, and was originally known as Klipspruit ("klipspruit" translates to "rocky river" in Afrikaans). The settlement was at that time nothing more than a squatters camp with the rocky river running through it.

In post-apartheid South Africa, Kliptown itself has seen both major development and neglect. There have been over 1,000 units of affordable housing built near this site, yet there are also still 11 informal settlements or shantytowns in the area known as Kliptown.

We are working in a large "informal settlement," or shantytown, which has been in place since the 1940s. The settlement lacks basic municipal services (water, sewage, electricity, etc.) and struggles with issues of air pollution, illegal dumping, and water pollution. 

Families live with up to four generations in small homes made from corrugated tin, cardboard and other found materials. The students must leave the settlement to go to school. All residents must leave to obtain medical services and purchase food and goods.

Despite such conditions, the community has been supported by initiatives like the Kliptown Youth Program. We hope that the Kliptown Photography Project can help foster similar support and growth.


What If We Raise More Money Than Our Goal?

What if we exceed our goal? Well, that's a great problem to have. Very simply, any money not used to run the seminar or mount the exhibitions of the work goes to the Kliptown Youth Program.

Other Ways You Can Help

If you can't donate, but you want to help, let us know. You never know, we might find something for you to do.

If you can't donate, or you can't donate much, one of the most helpful things you can do is promote this project. Put it on your Facebook account. Tweet it. Pin it. Load it on your Tumblr page. Get it out there. Please spread the word about our campaign.

Find us at our new campaign here!

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Choose your Perk

One Postcard

$25 USD
A postcard from us, featuring "the faces of Kliptown," portraits taken by our students of each other and their families.
Estimated Shipping
August 2014
14 out of 200 of claimed

Set Kliptown Postcards

$50 USD
A set of four "faces of Kliptown" postcards for your own use.
Estimated Shipping
August 2014
12 out of 200 of claimed

11" x 17" Poster

$100 USD
An 11" x 17" poster of "the faces of Kliptown," suitable for framing.
Estimated Shipping
August 2014
1 out of 100 of claimed

One 8" x 10" Print

$250 USD
An 8" x 10" limited edition digital print taken by one of our professional photographers during the week of our workshop
Estimated Shipping
August 2014
6 out of 50 of claimed

Two 8" x 10" Prints

$500 USD
Two 8" x 10" limited edition digital prints taken by two of our professional photographers during the week of our workshop
Estimated Shipping
August 2014
0 out of 20 of claimed

Four 8" x 10" Prints

$1,000 USD
Four 8" x 10" limited edition digital prints taken by all of our professional photographers during the week of our workshop
Estimated Shipping
August 2014
0 out of 10 of claimed

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