peripheral vision

Alright, we’re packed. All the zippers are zipped. Tickets and passports are in my purse. And we have almost two hours until we get picked up to go to the airport. So what now? Figured I may as well take a moment to blog.

I’m pretty excited about some of the contacts I’ve made. I’ve got a bit of a plan for a personal photography project while I’m there, which I won’t go into detail about here yet, since it might be a total flop and I might end up taking a completely different direction. I’ve also been in touch with Iliso Labantu, a collective of township photographers in Cape Town. I’m bringing my old D70s to donate to them, and it happens that they’re having one of their flash photo weekends while we’re there. So I’m planning to go to that, both to shoot a little bit and to help some of the photographers improve their shooting and editing. I’m so stoked. I’ve always believed that it’s better to enable marginalized people to photograph their communities and lives themselves than to photograph it yourself — not that it’s wrong to photograph marginalized people, of course, but it is problematic — so I’m just delighted to get this opportunity to see that kind of work in action.

I’ve also been in touch with a tribal fusion belly dance troupe, so I’m hoping to catch a performance and maybe a rehearsal.

And of course, we have some wonderful family to visit. And the summer. We’re so deep in winter that it’s really an act of imagination to consider what summer will actually feel like. I know intellectually that during the summer you can walk outside in barefeet but I can’t really remember what that feels like beyond really, really nice.

I’m really looking forward to staying in one city for our whole stay. In the past we’ve travelled around to visit other family, and while I’m sad we won’t see them, I’m relieved to be staying put.

See you on the flip side!

So it’s dare week for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, and I still haven’t come up with a dare that’s challenging but do-able. I have, however, created a new 2010 calendar, and if you buy it, I will donate all the proceeds to the Stephen Lewis Foundation. This new calendar features images from my 2007 trip to South Africa that aren’t displayed in the gallery here and that I’ve never offered for sale. You can preview all the images in the calendar here. The calendars I sold last year are also still available, updated for 2010, and I will also donate 100% of the proceeds to the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

Happily, my friend, Janna, has come up with a fantastic dare. She and her family are eating a typical Malawian diet for the week. That means no booze, no juice or pop, no prepared foods, and a limited menu of beans, Nsima, the Malawian staple of corn meal, and beans. They’re even inviting us over for dinner tomorrow night.

Funnily enough, when I told my husband that we were going for a Malawian dinner of Nsima (the South African version is called mielie pap), he mentioned that he’s actually kind of already done the challenge. Years ago, when he lived in Toronto, he could only afford a $5 sack of corn meal, and because his job was a long commute, he only had time and energy to cook it once a day. Within a few weeks he started getting paid, and then he shifted to Chinese buffet once a day.

The great thing about this dare is that anyone can donate online. So please go support her. The Stephen Lewis Foundation does wonderful work, and this dare is a genuine challenge for them that requires a lot of thought and planning to actually carry it out.

So what are you waiting for?

I got a phone call tonight from the Stephen Lewis Foundation, to which I donate 50 percent of the proceeds from online print sales here. They’re launching a new campaign, “A Dare to Remember,” and they wondered if I would be willing to participate from Oct. 17 to 25.

I am.

The thing is, I can’t think of a good dare. But I have a feeling maybe someone here can.

If you check out the website, you’ll see they have different categories of dares and suggested fundraising goals. I would love to do a bold dare and aim for $1000. So what do you think I should do?

Leave a comment here or email me at kate (at) peripheralvision (dot) ca with your most outrageous ideas — tamer ideas are welcome too.

Here are the details of the exhibition I’m in, and the opening reception:

Saturday, April 25th from 7 – 10pm

Celebrate DOORS OPEN GUELPH 2009
With the official opening of

still standing
An exhibition dedicated to Guelph’s rich architectural heritage
April 21, 2009 until the end of May

Photographers:
Dean Palmer, Gordon Laird, Karolina Kuras, Dawn Owen, Colin Carney, Julie Pasila, KC Hornsby, Chris Tiessen, Peter Kelly, Nicholas Rees, Maggie Leighton, Romano Bernabei, Stephen Beatty, Kate Wilhelm, Rob O’Flanagan, Karin Silverstone

The exhibition, which also features the work of Plein Air Painters, Scott Abott, Kathleen Schmalz, and Laura Coutts, will include archival photographs of historical architecture from Guelph’s Civic Museum, a quilt by Joan F. Hug-Valeriote, and Janet Morton’s Knitted House.

The alma gallery
133 Wyndham St. N Guelph, ON

I will also take this opportunity to confess clarify that I have decided to change my donation practices. I’ve decided to donate 50 percent of the proceeds from online sales only to the Stephen Lewis Foundation. As I have recently learned, printing and framing is a huge paint in the ass takes a lot of time and effort, so I’m going to feed any proceeds back into my photography. When I started this website, just over a year ago, the idea of exhibiting framed prints on a gallery wall felt like a total pipe dream. But now that it’s happening, I feel like this is the right move. Back then, I didn’t feel like I really deserved or needed the proceeds of print sales myself, but now I do, for real-life sales anyways. I’ve changed all the wording on the site to reflect this change.

So the Just Posts are coming to an end. Because of the last two years of Just Posts, we started sponsoring a child in Lesotho through Help Lesotho. I started this website to raise funds for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, around the time that I started volunteering at my local drop-in centre. Now, for the last hurrah of the Just Posts, it’s time to pump up our giving again. I’ve been trying to decide what to do, and I keeping coming back to my own tiny piece of the world. So I’m going to make monthly donations to the local drop-in centre. I had hoped to do this through CanadaHelps but for some reason the monthly giving option isn’t available for this particular charity. Oh well, I’ll just have to do it manually.

One of the things I love about the drop-in centre is that they (we) don’t treat the people they (we) serve with pity. People are expected to behave appropriately, and yet we make sure to never leave more than a dollar or two in the cash box, coats get locked away, and we are told to avoid leaving sharp knives on the front counter. I’m not sure how exactly to articulate it, except to use the term I discovered in In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Maté: unconditional regard. To me it means treating people with compassion but not pity, with humanity but not rose-coloured glasses, if that makes any sense. I saw a reference somewhere, maybe to a music album, maybe something else, but it was along the lines that we are all broken and beautiful. The drop-in centre teaches me that over and over.

It’s easy to become complacent. To tell yourself that you give here and here so you’ve done your part. But if you *can* afford more, why not? Especially with the economy tanking, more and more people are going to need help. Every time I get complacent, every time I think I’m doing enough, the Just Posts challenge me to rethink. Or I discover someone who puts me to shame. And the answer is that I might be doing enough, but I can do more.

The end of the Just Posts doesn’t have to be an ending; I prefer to look at it as a graduation. The Just Posts have taught me the basics, now it’s time for me to continue the journey on my own.

Here are some new pictures:

Today I found this video-slash-website. I was a bit suspicious of how slick it was and the lack of details about the exact projects and budgets and spending, and eventually I discovered that this is a campaign from the Nike Foundation. I’m personally not comfortable supporting the Nike Foundation, but the facts on the website and the message of the video are solid. And the video is certainly effective.

So I looked for other organizations that are empowering girls in developing nations, and indeed it’s not a new concept. There is the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative, which supports national leaders, and UNICEF has lots of projects to empower girls around the world. In the end, I chose to donate to 60 Million Girls, a Canadian charity that I could donate to through CanadaHelps.org. If you live in Canada and haven’t already been to CanadaHelps.org, check it out. There are hundreds of Canadian charities you can donate to through it, including local food banks and shelters, and the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which I also support through print sales.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and donate.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a letter from the Stephen Lewis Foundation thanking me for the contributions I’ve raised through the sale of my photography. The letter detailed some of its funded projects and associated costs, which I thought would be good to share here:

“In Swaziland, $2000 builds a community garden, including: a reservoir for watering, and the tools, seeds and chemicals needed for the garden. The women who tend the garden will feed their families nutritious food and sell their remaining crops. Their earnings will go to school fees so the orphan children in their care can attend school.

In South Africa, $352 will fund a sewing workshop for grandmothers, including: the sewing machine, the lessons and supplies/materials needed for a year. The income generated will mean a granny can feed orphans in her care who can then focus on school instead of hunger.

In Zambia, for $140  a vulnerable girl will attend school and live in an empowering and positive environment for a year. When she graduates with vocational training, business start-up skills, or an undergraduate certification, she will have the capacity and self-esteem to build a future for herself.”

So far I’ve contributed about $100  to the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Another cheque is in the mail for $50, so I think I’ll just donate the whole amount, so we will have raised enough for a girl to feel more empowered in Zambia.

Apparently, the foundation has been in operation for five years now, and in that time Canadians have donated over $30 million. That money has been spent on more than 250 projects in 15 countries struggling with the AIDS pandemic. Its kept its administrative costs at or below 10 percent. I’m so pleased to have the opportunity to support such  important work. And to the people who have bought my work: thank you!