I recently went to Kyle South Dakota with Cameras for Kids. The idea was to teach children/young adults photography as an important and viable tool of self-expression & empowerment. The annual flagship program is in Kyle, SD on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. C4K is currently planning for programming in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Hoi An, Vietnam, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti, before returning back to Kyle, SD, USA for the 4th Annual Camera For Kids Photography Workshop on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. We believe that the job of documenting these places should be placed in the hands of the community who live there because they see it best.

I spent the majority of the two weeks in the darkroom developing rolls of film and helping the students print their photos. It was an honor and delight to see the world little by little through their negatives and every time I opened the tank to remove the negatives I would hold my breath in excitement for what each frame would reveal.

Having a few weeks to reflect back I see that my time there has caused a paradigm shift in how I view the medium of photography. The true gift of photography is the fact that this art form allows everyone who picks up a camera the ability to stop a specific time. Our being present when photographing allows for meaning to emerge later through time and retrospection. The meaning becomes more apparent in the moments we choose to focus on. There is no shortage of inspiration and diversity when you realize that everyone sees the world differently.

"After all, the true seeing is within." George Eliot

As a photographer (and as a photography teacher) I go inward and dig a little more into the ways in which I see and why. When you give someone a camera and ask them to photograph what they see – you open up a space for imagination and connection that blooms through emotions and self-expression. That’s the space where you discover the source of creativity and when your own unique vision can emerge and be seen. We become empowered by our own ways of seeing, by our experiences that we carry with us behind our eyes that make us more than fingers pressing buttons. We begin to trust our vision. We recognize the "decisive moment" begins in a place that is unobservable and can only be felt in our being.

“What we see depends mainly on what we look for. ... In the same field the farmer will notice the crop, the geologists the fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the colouring. Though we may all look at the same things, it does not all follow that we should see them.”

— John Lubbock

photos by Jessi Kristine Photography

Apart from how beautiful and peaceful the landscape of South Dakota was the people I met were the true gift of this trip. Joe Whitting is an elder who single-handedly propelled cameras for Kids into the program that it is today. In his younger days, Joe was a police officer on the rez and served during the re-occupation of wounded knee. Joe is a man of many trades from tour-guide, to community organizer, to carving intricate details into leather belts for a woman who sells these belts in Nashville.

He had stacks of notebooks dating back to 63’ each page signed by everyone he meets. The page that stood out the most to me was in 67’ a woman signed it and left a red lipstick mark as her signature. The lips were open, full and kissable even preserved for more than 30 years inside this spiral bound notebook. Throughout his home, he had dozens of pieces of artwork made in his likeness. There was a painting of cowboys riding through the black hills- three of the cowboys with Joes face. A water-color of Joe standing in his garden surrounded by purple prairie flowers. A pencil drawn portrait of Joe the cowboy staring off into the horizon. Each piece of artwork a gift from the people he guided.

The last time I visited him we sat in his living room with the nightly news droning on in the background,
Monsanto
Mass shooting
Trump Vs. Clinton
I was reading poetry from a cowboy poetry chapbook Joe had laying next to his rocking chair, which I inquisitively picked up without permission.
I read a poem from the book outloud. It was about a man who bought his son a horse and discovered that the horse died on the trip home the same day.
Joe pointed out his favorite poem and I read it out loud,
It was a poem about praying.
When I returned home, a few days later I got a package in the mail from Kyle SD, with Joe's name on the return address space. He had picked up the poetry book, had It signed by the poet and sent it to me.
And that’s how I fell in love with Mr. Joe Whitting.

Did I mention that I slept in the darkroom at one point? because I did. I think that brings photography and myself to a whole new level of commitment in our relationship.

I am so grateful for the students who shared their unique way of seeing their world with us because it taught me more than I could have put inside a powerpoint.

Also for the impromptu soul-feeding drives through South Dakota thanks to Jessi and her spontaneity because they were some of my favorite memories of the South Dakota landscape.

Cameras for Kids on Pine Ridge