Cuneyt Sezer started taking photographs after volunteers set up a photography studio and workshop in the region following the 1999 Marmara earthquake. He had a photography exhibition at the tent house he is living in.

Sezer is now 18 years old and teaching photography to poor and working children.

Children's photographs exceed borders

The Solidarity Volunteers set up the photography workshop for the children living in tent houses following the Marmara earthquake.

The children had a photo album published after having their first workshop. Their work was one of the issues discussed during the 5th International Art Symposium and the pedagogy students at the Munich University wrote a thesis on the issue.

The exhibition composed of the photographs taken by the children went to Austria after Turkey, then to Japan, the Netherlands and Germany.

Children's world as they see it

Mehmet Kacmaz, one of the teachers at the photography studio said this was a brand new experience. The workshop has succeeded in "establishing a relationship of equality with the children, taught them to ask questions rather than try and find answers, and refrained from the conditioning created by punishment and award."

Children are taking the photograph of life

Most of the photographs the children took at the time were of other children, and cutaways from the daily lives of people who were shattered by the earthquake.

So far 41 children have attended the photography workshop; 18 of them have completed the workshop and 26 are still continuing. Thirteen-year-old Ekrem Bora tells his story:

"We first learned how to use the camera. Then we took photographs and learned how to develop them. I was very happy when I was able to develop my own photographs."

Children who work and take photographs

The children learn to develop photographs at the photo lab twice a week. Cuneyt Sezer, who is now teaching what he has learned to the children, said they now have better facilities.

"Now we are working with more professional equipment. Our photo lab is equipped with all the necessary equipment."

However, most of the children who attend the workshop need to also work. Cuneyt is also preparing for the university entry examinations. He wants to study photography at the Kocaeli University's Art Faculty. (EU/EA/YE)