Listen to My Pictures – Foto Class – Guadalajara, Mexico from Josh Meltzer on Vimeo.

Just finished putting together this video story about the kids that are in my photo class.  We have our final show opening at the Museo Regional tomorrow, Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. in Guadalajara, México.

Set up and the opening for a show of my work from this year opened last night at the Museo Ex-Convento.   Many friends, strangers, contacts, and even some of the kids in my class came to the opening, which made me feel very good.  Jose Hernandez-Claire gave me a very nice welcome speech, and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to get to know him this year.

The show is open from now through July 16, 2009 daily except Mondays.

After many months of planning the Truth With A Camera workshop with directors Chris Tyree and Stephen Katz, fellow instructors Faith Cathcart, Dave Ellis and José Hernandez Claire, we are finally here in Guadalajara all together finishing up a fantastic week of work with 19 Mexican and American young photojournalists.  Please visit the blog of the workshop, www.truthworkshopblog to see their work and hear their words.

After nearly seven months of teaching a weekly photo class to a group adolescents here in Guadalajara, the students turned in their Canon cameras and we had our final edit for an upcoming show.  We narrowed down 16,803 images shot by 19 students ages 11-16 to a small group of 50 photographs that are being printed and framed as I write.

I’m currently editing a video about the class and our experiences, that will be posted on the class’ website www.joshmeltzer.com/ltmp/ltmp.html soon as well as projected at the museum.

I would like to make an open invitation to attend the show, June 24 2009 at the Museo Regional in Guadalajara’s historic downtown at 7:30 p.m.  The U.S. consulate is coming on board as a sponsor, and the kids and I are really excited to show our work to the city.  We have promises from a newspaper and main television station here to make interviews with the kids to help promote the show.

Sadly, it’s already mid-year through the Fulbright, and for that the Becarios (grantees) gathered in Mexico City this past week for a mid-term reunion, to make short presentations of what we’ve been up to all these months.  The work and range of projects is simply amazing, from the creative to the science and everything in between.

It was also a chance to see some friends we’d made in September when we first arrived, and to make new friends.  On Saturday, 22 of us traveled the 1.5 hour ride in 5 cabs to Xochimilco, a series of canals just south of this huge city, once the flower-growing area of the District.  Now it’s a place for Chilangos and guests to relax for an afternoon on the lanchas, cruising slowly in the crowded canals with a few micheladas, corn, and coconut ice cream.

James Breiner, a Knight Fellow working in Guadalajara, it seems was there the same day as us, and has some good history on his blog on Xochimilco.  Missy also has some good info and anecdotes.

Last weekend, we went off to Morelia with friends Liam and Meghan for a three-day weekend to visit the monarch butterly sanctuaries.  We stayed in the capital of the state of Michoacan, in Morelia, which was a beautiful place to get away from Guadalajara.  We only visited the historic center, but loved the colonial buildings, the lack of grafiti covering everything, and the amount of activity in the plazas on the weekends.  I’m nearly convinced that every photo in Mexican tour books that isn’t taken at the beach or in the desert may have been taken in the center of Morelia.

It was Valentine’s weekend, so the balloon vendors were out in full force, as we were treated to a children’s dance performance.

Saturday was the first day of the much anticipated photography class.  Out of our initial list of 16 students we had 8 show up, which is a good turnout for the first class, on a Saturday afternoon.  Several of the kids who weren’t there had previous committments, so we’re hoping for an even stronger showing this weekend for Class #2.  Still waiting on my computer cable from the local MAC store here to use my Mac to project images, so we used Danielle’s computer and the CODENI projector which worked wonderfully.

Many thanks go out to our volunteers who showed up and even broght their own photos and ice-breaker exercises to share with the students.  We’re very anxious to receive the cameras in a few weeks from Listen to My Pictures, and I heard today that they’ve all been ordered.  Thanks to volunteer Jorge Hernandez who bought great enthusiasm and a fun icebreaker where we cutout T-shirts and wrote our promises for the class.  Everyone shared their promises to come on time, work hard, and honor and protect the equipment.

Newspaper photographer Humberto Muñiz from Público shared his amazing photographs from documentary projects on people living in the streets of Guadalajara with the children, as well as made a great explanation on the fundamentals of true documentary work, which is what the kids will be doing once they get the cameras in hand soon.  He even told us that there was interest from the newspaper to publish the kids’ work at the end of the course.

At the end we spent a half hour using my three cameras to shoot portraits of each other and a few of two guys sitting on the stoop next door drinking Squirt and rubbing alcohol while playing their guitar.

Muchas gracias a los voluntarios, Jorge Hernádez, un licensiado receiente de UdG, y Humberto Muñiz, un fotógrafo profesional del periodico Público.  Espero que ellos pueden asistir en las siguentes clases y los traeremos otros voluntarios también.  Los dos vienen con mucha experiencia, ideas y energía para ayudar los niños.  Vamos a reunirnos cada Sábado a las 16:00 en la oficina de CODENI en calle Camarena 336.  Estoy emocionado por las siguentes clases, y muchas gracias a Jorge y Humberto por la ayuda.

Maria Madrigal teaches Efrain basic photography.

IMAGE GALLERY As part of the CODENI summer activities program, photographer Maria Madrigal spent the past two weeks working with a half dozen students teaching the basics of photography. I hope to continue her work through my year here with the help of Listen to My Pictures for financial support for equipment.

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