Sometimes, a totally random event will draw us outside our preconceptions and help us see photography in a new light. I would never have thought of photos and captions in the context of adoption or how that application of photography could be anything special, but for a foreign adoption of a child who is already grown and speaks a different language, knows a different culture, and within the space of a few minutes is being launched into a new family, a simple photo album can be a treasure.
At first glace, this seems totally unrelated to photography, I know, but keep the title in mind. It has everything to do with photos and captions, and not only that, but applying our medium to the world around us in order to build others up instead of shooting just for some techy self-pleasure.
My brother and sister-in-law just adopted a nine-year-old girl from China. Before they left, my sister-in-law had the idea of using this cool little photo album they had been given to help their nine-year-old daughter acclimate to the her family. Each page in the photo album could record a ten second message to explain the photo. Then, when you just happen to have a brother that lives and works in China (enter ChinaCoop), that album can be narrated in Chinese.
Simply put, all I did was narrate captions (in Chinese) to a photo album.
That turned some very everyday photos from random boring photos into something important. And captions are not always important: if I who already have the information view those photos, I know who the people are, what they are doing, and the importance of each person and situation. It depends on the audience.
For my niece, this little narrated photo album meant more than almost anything else. From this situation, I have tried to challenge myself to use my photography for more than self-pleasing art, but to practically add value to the people and society around me.
Actually, though not my own photography, at the behest of my brother, I have realized that something so simple for me could mean so much to more than just my own family and my own niece. I could do this for others. So, I have put up the China Adoption Photo Album site as a service to other families who want to help their children adapt to a new family.
Photography in action. I love it.
