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Kamikazes de la imagen (Image Kamikazes) comes from the creative and visual voice of Spanish photo artists with Down syndrome.

This time, people suffering from trisomy 21 are not the ones being photographed, but the ones shooting the camera and creating images from their environment in a determined, autonomous and creative way. They tell us their dreams through their words and images. Who could better self represent themselves and make themselves to be heard and more visible in society?

They have a rampant and shameless style. Convincing and clear. They allow themselves what other photographers could not. Image as mean of expression is inherent before beginning to shoot.

Some of the main skills of people with Down Syndrome are perception and visual memory, better than hearing. Generally, they forget more easily what they hear, but they remember what they see. Photography, as a tool for visual expression, is specially adequate to develop a great artistic potential from the collective of photographers with trisomy 21.

Image Kamikazes aims to achieve quality artistic creation, personal development and social and creative empowerment of people with Down Syndrome, as well as to expand their visibility and self-representation. Participant artists improve their visual and verbal expression and they work in group on an essay about their environment.

Image Kamikazes is the result of a total of 9 workshops which took place in several places of Spain: Córdoba, Sabadell and Toledo in 2012.

This project has been conceived by NOPHOTOVOZ/ Eva Sala and it has been possible thanks to Down España, the associations Down Córdoba, Down Toledo and Andi Sabadell, CentroCentro and “la Caixa” Foundation.

More info in the project blog: downvozes.blogspot.com.es

Video summarizing NOPHOTOVOZ's work.

Conceived and facilitated by Eva Sala / NOPHOTOVOZ and Marcela Lockett, psychologist and photographer.

Enfocadas (Focused) results from the creative, visual and written voice of a group of women who self-define themselves as survivors. The artists managed to leave behind gender violence and in their work they flee the stereotype of "battered woman" offered by the media. Their work shows us their life since recovery.

This exhibition is the result of a 5-month workshop made in 2013.

Enfocadas has been possible specially due to the artists' commitment and their aim to communicate and avoid violence situations.

The project is possible thanks to La Caixa Foundation, Intress and the Directorate General of Equal Opportunities from the Town Hall of Madrid.

More info in: enfocadasvoz.blogspot.com.es

Participatory photo project made by Buddhist teenage monks from Namobuddha monastery (Nepal).

Namobuddha is a Buddhist monastery and pilgrim centre 40 km away from Kathmandu. The place is a well-known pilgrim destination because there, one of Buda Shakyamuni's incarnations, offered his body to a tiger so it could feed its hungry cubs. Nowadays, 350 monks live together in a monastery, most of them young or children students. For some families, a son being a monk -at least for a period in his life- means a chance for him to get access to a quality training.

The monastery is a place where life in common is essential and monks of all ages used and shared the cameras, not only teenage monks taking part in the Pachadi Nepal Project workshop.

The proposal of making a photo workshop there was well-received by the school: they wanted to take the chance to experiment and create. The participant photographers had never before shot a camera. Lhakpa Samdup, Nagawang Tserieng, Dawa Rabsal, Sangay and Lhakpa Dorje -from 14 to 17 years old- skipped sleeping hours and stop their pujas -religious rituals- for some days in order to learn how to handle the camera, to build a camera obscura, to show their daily life in images, to paint through light, to translate emotions into images or to edit a projection.

An exhibition was shown in the main temple of the monastery and participants acquired knowledge to be able to teach other students in the future.

For more information: pachadinepal.blogspot.com.es

Participatory and social photo project made by children from Hanuman Public School in Nepalgunj (Nepal).

PACHADI in Nepali means "hidden", "not seen".

Pachadi Nepal Project was born from this idea, an artistic creation and international cooperation project made in Nepal in summer 2013 having as main characters those shooting the images: children and youth. They show at first hand daily life in a “pachadi” country, which we have no access to if we travel there as tourist.

The project first stage was carried out in Hanuman Public School in Nepalgunj, southern Nepal, at the border with India. Nepalgunj is a Nepal dusty city at the border with India having a couple of main streets constantly crossed by rickshaws. Nowadays, it is under commercial and tourist development. Highly diverse culturally, there are many languages and dialects simultaneously spoken, religions also live together: Hinduism, Islamism, Buddhism, Catholicism... People from very different ethnic backgrounds live together without any major conflict.

The 22 photographers were from 10 to 14 years old and faced the challenge to document their closest environment in order to share it with other places in the planet. Every time we were out to take pictures in the neighbourhood, everybody got involved in the project and their daily life was efficiently summarize.

Pachadi Nepal Project works with children from Hanuman neighbourhood, in a public school from Nepali Government. The photos were taken by: Rhade Shyam, Som chaudhary, Rohit Verma, Hari Gausai, Swati Mishra, Roshni Thakur, Muskaan Jaiswal, Laxmi Raidus, Sumit Kurmi, Anil Bhujwa, Aditya Gausai, Neelam Lohar, Sudha Bhujwa, Ankit Thakus, Vishal Sharma, Sunil Verma, Sudip Singh Thakur.

Pachadi Nepal Project was possible thanks to the support of friends and sponsors.

Idea by Eva Sala. Facilitation by Eva Sala and Manuel Blanco.

More info in pachadinepal.blogspot.com.es

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Diseñado y desarrollado por Julio César González