Camera Obscura Project | Syracuse, New York

The Camera Obscura Project was a proposal to create a space where children in an underserved neighborhood could document and change the images of their own community. GA|C worked with a local photographer, Steven Mahan to develop a site adjacent to the future home of  his studio in the Near Westside neighborhood in Syracuse, NY where Steven would be teaching.

Using a small building designed to function as a Camera Obscura, the Near Westside neighborhood would be projected upside-down on a wall inside. Children can interact with the images, and they are in turn recorded by a video camera and sent to the computer in a near-by classroom. Children can then manipulate the images from the Camera Obscura as a part of the visual technology course. The transformed images would then be projected to an exterior wall of the building and become the backdrop of performing art projects.

Near Westside is the 9th poorest census tract in the United States and children in this neighborhood do not enjoy a safe environment to grow in. While writing and drawings may intimidate children, photography is an accessible and effective form of expression. The program is rooted in the community in that the students photograph their environment as subject matter to confront and understand it. Those photographs are shared, discussed and questioned --enlightening the community and building self-esteem in the creators.