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Inspired by contemporary American photographer Wendy Ewald's Black
Self/White Self documentary project, AnOther Self was conceived to allow
13 young adults living in the Porta Farm informal settlement, Zimbabwe to
use creative writing, drawing, and photography to imagine what it would be
like to change identities, to take on the mantle of another person's life.
Over the course of many months, the students gently encouraged one another to
be bold enough to move beyond the physical boundaries that separate them from
the lives they fear they may never have, and hold them close to the lives they
fear they may never escape.
During weekly youth group meetings, a substantial list was developed of all
the "key players" in our discussions and debates-from parents and orphans to
farm workers and farm owners, from people with AIDS in Zimbabwe to Americans,
white people, and the President. These were people about whose lives the young
adults in the group had a resoundingly clear opinion: some people have it easy,
some do not.
The formal exploration process began with each member of the group being
assigned four identities: each person was assigned "yourself" and "someone
with HIV/AIDS. " These were the identities overwhelmingly most discussed
over the course of the year. Then each person was assigned two other identities
from the list of nine, and was asked to write 4 short essays imagining that they
themselves carried each identity. They were told to be creative, to imagine how
people would look at them and how they would look at other people, what they
would have and/or need, and what they would want to do with their lives. They
were also encouraged to consider the more practical aspects of each identity:
where and with whom they would live, what they would eat, etc.
The result was the creation of 52 extrarodinary images. The young adults wrote
startlingly clear and often very moving pieces as they imagined themselves
carrying other identities. Indeed, they seemed to slip between these imagined
lives with relative ease, looking at the world through the eyes of an orphan
one minute and those of a father the next, or as an American one minute and
then as a Zimbabwean squatter the next. After the writing was reviewed, the
young adults used their writing as a tool to draw portraits imagining what
a picture of each life might look like.
After the pictures had been drawn, each child was offered the chance to craft
four photographic images for each of their four identities. The young adults
arrived at the secondary school, often with costumes and props in hand, and
posed each image carefully, considering light, background and the use of other
people or objects. Of course, there were some practical limitations: one young
man wanted to use luggage and a plane for a "going overseas" portrait but
decided to settle for a knapsack and a local truck instead.
Despite such limitations, the young adults created 208 images they were eager
for others to see. After developing the proofs and going through a peer review
and critiquing process, the youth made a selection of their two favorite
images-photograph and writing. These were matted, framed, and finally,
shown and sold at an exhibition at the Gallery Delta in Harare, Zimbabwe.
All proceeds from the sale went to the Porta Farm Secondary School for
school fees for the appropriate student artist.
The following images are all their own, and represent only a small sample
of this work. For more information, please contact Kacey Young Eichelberger
at kaceyyoung@yahoo.com
Gallery:
"AnOther Self: Explorations of Identity"
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