Lucy Wilson Photographs Series, 2003-2004

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1 box

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As a 2003-2004 Lewis Hine Documentary Fellow, Wilson spent six months in 2004 working with the Child Protection Society (CPS), a local child rights advocacy organization. CPS was established in 1952 to promote the rights of children in difficult circumstances in Zimbabwe. Wilson photographed and wrote about CPS's community-based child care project in the Highfield District, a low-income, high-density suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe's capital. CPS programming in Highfield includes educational sponsorship, food assistance, youth development, and psychosocial support, as well as community support to child-headed households whose parents have most likely died from HIV/AIDS. As part of the youth development programming, Wilson taught nine children and youth the basics of photography, giving them cameras and black-and-white film. She first asked the youth to write short essays on topics often drawn from the students' own interests. (The students wrote in English, their second or third language.) They were then encouraged to take photographs based on their writing. Once students developed the images, they selected their best pictures and wrote captions for them (which can be found in the Black and White Prints Subseries). These assignments asked the youth to reflect on the realities of their lives. Wilson's collection from her time in Zimbabwe is entitled "The Highfield District of Harare, Zimbabwe."

Twenty-one color (10) and black-and-white (11) 6.5 x 10" images. Captions for some prints taken from multimedia presentation of the images; others supplied by processing archivist.

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