Alex Fattal Photographs Series, 2003-2004

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1 box

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As a 2002-2003 Lewis Hine Documentary Fellow, Fattal became a documentary researcher for the Children's Rights Centre (CRC) in Durban, South Africa from February 2003 to August 2004. The CRC, initially a peace building organization during the violence in KwaZulu-Natal in the 1980s and early 1990s, has grown into a national non-governmental organization mobilizing and advocating for children's rights in every sector of South African society. Fattal's assignment was to explore challenges to children's rights in a qualitative, visual and participatory way, which he undertook over sixteen months by way of traveling to and stay with various households. While staying with these families, he worked with the children leading a series of discussions about photographs in their everyday environment and taught them the basics of framing, lighting, and operating a camera (which they then taught to their family members). Fattal's project (entitled "Images of Childhood in South Africa Ten Years after Apartheid") consists of photographs in color that he took, and photographs in black and white that children and their parents or caregivers took. Various family members would tell stories about the images they would make, and these narratives are included below with the captions. (Note: all names and specific locations have been changed by Fattal.)

Twenty-nine color images and twelve black-and-white images on 8.5 x 11" Epson paper. Captions taken from original texts.

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