Where Children Sleep: Ryota

Ryota is ten years old. He lives in Tokyo, with his family. He is a champion sumo wrestler. In his bedroom, we see a small television, with 3 boxes stacked on top. His room is very messy. It is much smaller than an average Bucks County bedroom. He has an old GameCube on the ground. He has a stuffed Winnie the Pooh on the ground. His bed is on the right side of the room. The bed appears to be rather small. Next to his bed, he has a dresser. The dresser has toys on top of it. There is a small air conditioner in the top left of his room.

Photograph by James Mollison

Where Children Sleep; Sam

Photo by James Mollison

Indira, 7 years old, has already been forced to a poverty struck life by working as a granite quarry worker in Nepal. Her family is unable to afford anything but the small one room house. In the room you see a bed, where the entire family sleeps, and small amounts of storage space, where the entire family keeps belongings. (however, I'm sure the family does not have much belongings in the first place) The walls seem to be made of mud or a weak base similar. The ceiling made of branches and straw. Can you try to imagine the way this family lives? If you were to be living in a one room house with your entire family? The family probably eats at work, having very little, probably stale foods. They could work for twelve or more hours of the day, exhausted by the end, only to come home to sleep in one bed with 3 or more people. Looking at the poverty shown in this picture, life seems pretty amazing, with no one realizing enough how lucky we are, until we God forbid, live a life like this.

This photo, taken by James Mollision, speaks to me because he only has two trees, a stool, and his mother. I could never picture myself just living like that. It hurts to know that when I go to bed with my mattress you goes to bed on a stool.

I think that if the rest of America saw this some would be in shell shock and others would just walk away.

Madie Annie and Emily!

When we look at this we see tragedy. This 4 year old Romanian boy living on the outskirts of Rome feels pain everyday. Him and his family all share a mattress and a couple of torn blankets. This photo tells the story of hope inspiration. When we look at this picture we feel inspired. We feel like we should help, and that we can do something to help him to stop suffering. This photo speaks to us in big words. Its saying that this little boy can change the way you think and make you want to know more about his story and his life. This photo has the power to make somebody feel inspiration to help. This boy and his family really need a lot. This photo has the power to make you want to know how he feels.... Does he know anybody outside of his family? Does he try to work to support his family? This little Romanian boy living on the outskirts of Rome, really has a big story to tell, and that is why this photo speaks to us. http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/where-children-sleep/ James Mollison

Thanks!

"Where Children Sleep" -room in Kenya.

Photography taken by:

James Mollison

This photo speaks to me because it brings a pretty widespread range of emotions through me. The emotions I feel range from grateful, to sad, and then unusually happy. I'm grateful because seeing a young boy having to live in what looks like the wild, makes me feel grateful that I have a warm room to go to every night. I feel very sympathetic towards this boy and his family. I don't know if this boy is happy with his life or not, but even if he wasn't happy I get a sense of happiness because at least he has a place to live when a lot of people in the world don't.

I don't think this photo has the ability to completely alter the world; but I do believe that it has the possibility to alter people's thinking. If a persons personal thoughts are changed by this photograph then that could lead to them taking action. This photo has the potential to make someone realize that sometimes life does go as planned. This boy might be dreaming about the day when his life changes for the better as opposed to the worst.

When searching through the photographs trying to find the one that spoke to me the most I realized that this one changed my thinking about life outside of America. If that could happen to me...it could happen to anyone.

Where Children Sleep

You may work with a partner or by yourself:

View the online exhibit, Where Children Sleep, at the New York Times photo blog, Lens.  Take your time.  Look through the entire exhibit, trying to see and not just look.  Then choose one photo to concentrate on and create a new blog post about it.  You might use the following questions to help you formulate your response:

• What do you see? (Remember seeing is more than looking...) 
• Whose story does this photo tell?  What's the story? 
• Why does this photo speak to you?
• How might this photo change the world?  How could it sway someone's feelings or opinions?

Include the photo in your blog response.  You cannot download the photos directly from the gallery, so you will need to take a screenshot.  You must put a link back to the NY Times exhibit and include the photographer's name. 

On Monday, we will learn about the work of Dorothea Lange.  While the 8th graders are at Bear Creek on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the 7th graders will work in groups to create a small exhibit (3-5 photos) that has a powerful message about something that matters. 

The Power of Photography

We have all heard the expression

a picture is worth a thousand words...

Photographs are powerful storytelling tools.  Dorothea Lange said, "The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera."  What does that mean?  What might we not see unless looking at a photograph?

This TED talk by Jonathan Klein, the man who runs Getty Images, is chock-full of ideas about the power of photography.  As we watch the video, please make a running list of ways that photography has influenced our opinions and/or impacted the world.