International Photo Exchange

Hello All,

I would like to share with everyone a successful AHECHA Project in my site Pilar, Paraguay. My dad visited July 2009 for three weeks in Pilar and asked me early on to be involved in one of my projects. I purposely coordinated with CoCuMu to check out cameras while my dad was in Pilar. My dad, Bob Byrd a professional photographer and educator in Vancouver, WA was enthusiastic about the prospect of teaching Pilar youth about the art of Photography. We began planning an International cultural exchange project, an exchange of photographs between Pilar and Vancouver, WA spring 2009. My dad teaches at Hudson’s Bay High School, an urban high school with 2000 students where he proposed the project to his Advanced Photography students Spring 2009 with question what would they like to know about the youth culture of Pilar, Paraguay? The students were asked to respond to the question and were sent out with cameras in hand to show through pictures their own youth culture of Vancouver, WA.

Last July while in Pilar, my dad and I held six informal photography workshop sessions with seven youth from a local high school, Coliego Pilar. In the end, both the eleven students of Vancouver, WA and the seven Pilar students showed through pictures an idea of what youth culture is like in their own respective cultures. The culmination of this International Photography exchange project was fifty six prints destined to be shown in a two different photo exhibits, one exhibit in Vancouver, WA and the other in Pilar, Paraguay. My dad is able to sum up the project, “While the two groups are physically and culturally separated and there are some distinct differences in lifestyles, some fascinating similiarities are revealed by the young photographers.” The photo exhibit was held in Vancouver last December 2009 with 50 attendees’ opening night. The Vancouver exhibit has appeared in two publications which can be viewed in this blog. The show is now currently on display at Hudson’s Bay High School. The exhibit here in Pilar, Paraguay is tentatively scheduled (entirely weather dependent) for April 2010 in the Cabildo Pilar, the old city hall, followed by an exhibition in Colegio Pilar. As of now, my dad is asking to start another Photo Exchange Project. Way to go Dad!

-Brian, February 2010