"More light for children"

Chişinău, February 1, 2019. A first-time exhibition of 60 artistic photographs, made by the children who serve their sentence at the Goian penitentiary, was inaugurated today in Chisinau. In a laboratory specially set up in Goian penitentiary, 12 boys aged 14-18 years, with the help of experts, discovered the magic of photo development process and learned to interpret the meaning of their own photos and those of their colleagues.

"I was fascinated by the classical photography on "film", with development, fixing, editing on the computer. I find it more interesting than the ones taken with the cell phone. It's like a spell! At home we had a shoe box of old photos of our distant relatives. Men with moustaches and in military clothes, children in school uniforms, a priest with a large cross on his chest. I want to see them again. With other eyes, the eyes of a professional photographer," says one of the young photographers.

Using the equipment and chemicals needed to develop the film, children practised the art of photography in its classic formula: film and photo lab for development, followed by scanning and editing in Photoshop and Light Room Software. Social reintegration through arts is a less traditional response to the need of education for the children in detention, providing a reliable alternative solution to the social exclusion and isolation issue.

“At a time when millions of young people around the world are celebrating every day the advances in global connectivity, these children should not remain invisible and mute,” said Desiree Jongsma, UNICEF Country Representative in Moldova. “Even though their physical space has narrowed, last year their horizons have widened due to a very innovative initiative, of connecting them to the world through a photography darkroom.”

The photo exhibition also aims to raise public and decision makers awareness, proving the advantage of the more creative approaches usage in the education and social reintegration of young people in detention.

"Photography does not only show facts - it contains stories, awakens feelings and shares the emotions of a photographer when they press the shutter button. Visual arts, especially photography, offers a new meaning to life and fuels hope. It is a new, simple and effective way for the detained children to feel part of the society," says Doina Dumbrăveanu-Munteanu, director of the Association for Documentary Photography " A-DOF ".

Boys from the Goian Penitentiary also benefited from 25 interactive training sessions on visual arts and photography aesthetics, with practical use. At the same time, they learned to write texts for photographs, and, at the end, they will have the minimum necessary skills for practicing the profession of photographer in the future. However, the project did not aim to develop and train excellent technical skills.

"We wanted to encourage young people in prison to look for scenes and capture images that best express their inner world," said Nicolae Pojoga, expert-trainer in the project.

"I did not know that a bunch of light rays in contrast to the simple shadows of objects can express so many feelings," says one of his disciples. I try to study this simple phenomenon and I notice so many unusual things: the passing of time, the changes of my mood. Once, it seemed to me that I could write a poem about all of this, but I was embarassed of the others ... Here we are not supposed to be sentimental. "

The participants of the project created remarkable works of art - in conditions that are below the minimum of a classical photographic studio: no controllable lights, no performing optics, and finally, with a small number of required elements and objects. Each participant was offered a few, single-use, inexpensive cameras equipped with 35 mm film, with very little technical manoeuvring opportunities, to document his life, expressing his concerns and emotions.

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About the project "Facilitating social reintegration of the children in Goian Penitentiary No. 10 by valuing their intellectual potential and cultivating new skills in visual arts"

The project was implemented last year, and it had a duration of 6 months. The photos were made by adolescents from Goian Penitentiary No. 10, during July-December 2018. The implementation of this innovative pilot-project was possible due to the efforts of Association for Documentary Photography "A-DOF", financial support from UNICEF Moldova, as well as co-operation from the main implementing partners - the Penitentiary No.10 from Goian and the National Administration of Penitentiaries of the Ministry of Justice.

This project can be replicated both in other penitentiary institutions and with other target groups.