How I Found the Children of Inti Photo Project Ever since I got my first camera at age 12, I’ve had a passion for photography. I bring my camera with me wherever I go and I love to take photos of the people I meet, my friends and family, events, places I travel to, a fascinating ray of light and so on. As a graduate student at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS), I applied to Team Peru/Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development (AASD) because it seemed like an excellent opportunity to gain experience working in the field, and I was thrilled to hear that they had a photography project I could work on. The Children of Inti Photo Project teaches photography to around 40 students age 10-18 at a school in a small village called Pampacorral in the Peruvian Andes. I am working with Eric Ebner, brother of MIIS alumnus and Andian Alliance founder Aaron Ebner. Eric is an essential resource to make this project successful as he got the project off the ground last summer and has a background in photography.

Empowerment through Photography Through this project, we hope to both empower students and open people’s eyes to a different reality. Our photography classes take place two times a week, and in-between classes the students get assignments where they practice what they learned that week. By teaching photography to students who live in a remote area and belong to an indigenous Quechua community, we give them the opportunity to share their world with others. Their world is not often seen, and their voices are not often heard, but as we all know, a picture is worth more than a thousand words. We also believe that The Children of Inti Photo project can create global change by sharing these children’s photos with people around the world. That way, people who don’t have the opportunity to travel to Peru will get the chance to learn about these people. Awareness is an important step forward in creating a better world.

How You Can Help

MontereySTART funds will help us share the photos of the students in Pampacorral with the world. We want to exhibit a collection of the best photos both locally in Peru and in our own home countries, the United States and Norway. To be able to do this, we need money to print good quality photos and mount and frame them as we want the results to look professional. Our first goal is to set up an exhibition in Monterey, hosted either at the Monterey Institute or at one of the local art museums.

-Benedicte Gyllensten, July 2012