Dear Sir or Madam,
I wish to inform you about a project "Women in Photography," a training program that I have developed for the Padma Kanya School in Kathmandu, Nepal. The Padma Kanya School is a government school and as most government schools in Nepal, has no extra-curricular activities. The program was started last year and was overwhelmed with the response from the students. It has already proven to be a success and there are an increasing number of students requesting to participate. The objectives of the program are two fold. The first is to teach these young women to be technically competent in the use of the camera, studio lighting, printing, computers etc. So that by finishing this program they will have the skills suitable to acquire employment in the photographic field. Through the use of photography we will explore the second objective, which is to empower these same young women in their intellectual and creative life, to use photography as a way to explore themselves and their society through critical thought and imagery. I would like to set up exhibitions both in Nepal and want to connect with other institutions around the world to create a dialogue of larger scope. In every society in the world photography has come to be used to identify every action given, taken or produced by humans in the last century and has become essential to being literate in the modern world. I would like to start a photographic center with a darkroom, studio, computer and video sections where these young women will have resources to hone their skills, learn new techniques and be able to discuss with other students and professors. With these skills the students will begin to advance into the modern age of technical skill and start a dialogue with their communities? that has not existed before. Please help us to establish these things; in this way we will begin a revolution of expression through the creative life of photography and film in this small country.
Sincerely,
Manju Kumar Shrestha
Himalayan Photographic Centre Proposal
HIMALAYAN PHOTOGRAPHIC CENTRE
November 2012
Contact: Chip Elliott
chip.elliott.esq@gmail.com
1. Organizational Background and Mission Statement
Women in Photography is a Nepalese non-profit organization located in Kathmandu, Nepal established by Manju Shrestha in 2004.
Our mission is to provide Nepalese women, ages twelve to twenty, with essential skills to obtain jobs in all aspects of professional photographic still and moving image arts and media vocations.
2. Objective
'Himalayan Photographic Centre'
Our current fundraising project is to create the 'Himalayan Photographic Centre' as a regional and international community photographic centre. The students of the Women in Photography Nepal project will operate the centre as a professional computer lab and printing facility which will allow our students to gain professional experience and fund our Women in Photography programs.
3. Women in Photography Nepal
The Women in Photography project commenced in 2004 at the Padma Kanya Girls High School in Kathmandu, Nepal and was overwhelmed by the response from the students. As with all government schools in Nepal, Padma Kanya High School has no extra-curricular activities for the all female student population. Women in Photography has already proven to be a success here with over 550 students to date having completed our classes and there are an increasing number of students requesting participation. In classes and workshops students are taught how to use cameras for street and landscape shooting, studio lighting and how to develop and print their own black and white film images on photographic paper. Classes also include modules on image making aesthetics and fundamental ideas behind looking, describing and interpreting the photographic still and moving image. The Women in Photography project starts with a series of 15 bi-weekly workshops covering both the technical and creative aspects of photography. Each week consists of technical instruction, assignments to expand the students’ ability to think critically about the aesthetics of photographic images and to heighten their abilities to effectively communicate their ideas openly and freely through the photographic medium. At the conclusion of the course, graduating students will have the ability to progress with the program by becoming mentors to the younger students.
4. Program Directors
Women in Photography was conceived and founded by Manju Shrestha and continues to be run with his own funds. Manju has a company that sells and processes photographic film and runs a portrait studio. He is also a gifted cinemaphotographer who has won numerous awards for directing and producing feature films like “Nayak” and “Bar Peepal” as well as being regularly requested to work on documentaries filming in Nepal. He realized after forty years in the photographic media industries of Nepal he had never worked with a woman in any technical capacity. He felt it was time to correct that situation and move Nepal in a new direction.
Chip Elliott, Women in Photography’s co-director, has worked in the photographic industry for over twenty years and has been working with marginalized children in Kathmandu for over thirteen years using his extensive artistic, technical and pedagogical photographic experience for teaching and developing curriculum. His use of a flexible teaching style in the classroom for discussing multiple ways of seeing, of technique and understanding the photographic image helps students to bridge the gap between understanding themselves, their communities and the larger world.
5. Himalayan Photographic Centre
The ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre,' will be run by the Women in Photography graduates to giving them experience in the photographic image arts profession. The ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre’ will house the Women in Photography programs to conduct classes and as being a meeting place for local, regional and international artists to come and present their artwork and ideas through workshops on art making, gallery showings and offering the artists to produce new work at the centre with the participation of the Women in Photography students.
4. Program Funding and Budget
The ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre’ will employ graduates of the Women in Photography programs. The graduates will be trained in all professional photographic image making techniques of a professional photographic lab that will sustain itself and the Women in Photography program to ensure its long-term success and to create world-class photojournalists, artists, and photo image technicians from Nepal and the Himalayan region. The ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre’ will need to purchase equipment to become a professional computer, scanning, developing, and printing centre for both traditional and digital image making. The ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre’ will have a computer, scanning and digital printing lab, a traditional darkroom for black and white and color printing, a rental studio with a full selection of lights and equipment for commercial photographers and a professional art gallery for presenting student, regional and international artists work. We wish to establish a year round presence of international artists who can teach classes and workshops in photographic still and moving image media. The ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre’ will ensure the long-term sustainability of the Women in Photography project as well as create a meeting place for artists of the Himalayan region and beyond to share their images and ideas. Graduates of the Women in Photography program will be employed by the ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre’ giving them a chance to interact with professional photographers in a professional setting. The ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre’ business will offset the costs of continued delivery of the Women in Photography program to young women interested in the photographic image arts in three ways:
• Firstly, by providing market rate professional developing and printing services;
• Secondly, by charging membership to visiting photographers who wish to use the facilities;
• Thirdly, by renting out of cameras, computer stations, lighting equipment, studios and a darkroom and printing laboratories for private professional use.
We are presenting this proposal to foundations and private individuals to accumulate the total cost of creating the ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre.’ We can start the centre for approximately $190,000. Of this $140,000 will be expenses for printing equipment, $20,000 for website/advertising and $30,000 for consumables for the first two years of operations.
November 2012
Contact: Chip Elliott
chip.elliott.esq@gmail.com
1. Organizational Background and Mission Statement
Women in Photography is a Nepalese non-profit organization located in Kathmandu, Nepal established by Manju Shrestha in 2004.
Our mission is to provide Nepalese women, ages twelve to twenty, with essential skills to obtain jobs in all aspects of professional photographic still and moving image arts and media vocations.
2. Objective
'Himalayan Photographic Centre'
Our current fundraising project is to create the 'Himalayan Photographic Centre' as a regional and international community photographic centre. The students of the Women in Photography Nepal project will operate the centre as a professional computer lab and printing facility which will allow our students to gain professional experience and fund our Women in Photography programs.
3. Women in Photography Nepal
The Women in Photography project commenced in 2004 at the Padma Kanya Girls High School in Kathmandu, Nepal and was overwhelmed by the response from the students. As with all government schools in Nepal, Padma Kanya High School has no extra-curricular activities for the all female student population. Women in Photography has already proven to be a success here with over 550 students to date having completed our classes and there are an increasing number of students requesting participation. In classes and workshops students are taught how to use cameras for street and landscape shooting, studio lighting and how to develop and print their own black and white film images on photographic paper. Classes also include modules on image making aesthetics and fundamental ideas behind looking, describing and interpreting the photographic still and moving image. The Women in Photography project starts with a series of 15 bi-weekly workshops covering both the technical and creative aspects of photography. Each week consists of technical instruction, assignments to expand the students’ ability to think critically about the aesthetics of photographic images and to heighten their abilities to effectively communicate their ideas openly and freely through the photographic medium. At the conclusion of the course, graduating students will have the ability to progress with the program by becoming mentors to the younger students.
4. Program Directors
Women in Photography was conceived and founded by Manju Shrestha and continues to be run with his own funds. Manju has a company that sells and processes photographic film and runs a portrait studio. He is also a gifted cinemaphotographer who has won numerous awards for directing and producing feature films like “Nayak” and “Bar Peepal” as well as being regularly requested to work on documentaries filming in Nepal. He realized after forty years in the photographic media industries of Nepal he had never worked with a woman in any technical capacity. He felt it was time to correct that situation and move Nepal in a new direction.
Chip Elliott, Women in Photography’s co-director, has worked in the photographic industry for over twenty years and has been working with marginalized children in Kathmandu for over thirteen years using his extensive artistic, technical and pedagogical photographic experience for teaching and developing curriculum. His use of a flexible teaching style in the classroom for discussing multiple ways of seeing, of technique and understanding the photographic image helps students to bridge the gap between understanding themselves, their communities and the larger world.
5. Himalayan Photographic Centre
The ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre,' will be run by the Women in Photography graduates to giving them experience in the photographic image arts profession. The ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre’ will house the Women in Photography programs to conduct classes and as being a meeting place for local, regional and international artists to come and present their artwork and ideas through workshops on art making, gallery showings and offering the artists to produce new work at the centre with the participation of the Women in Photography students.
4. Program Funding and Budget
The ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre’ will employ graduates of the Women in Photography programs. The graduates will be trained in all professional photographic image making techniques of a professional photographic lab that will sustain itself and the Women in Photography program to ensure its long-term success and to create world-class photojournalists, artists, and photo image technicians from Nepal and the Himalayan region. The ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre’ will need to purchase equipment to become a professional computer, scanning, developing, and printing centre for both traditional and digital image making. The ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre’ will have a computer, scanning and digital printing lab, a traditional darkroom for black and white and color printing, a rental studio with a full selection of lights and equipment for commercial photographers and a professional art gallery for presenting student, regional and international artists work. We wish to establish a year round presence of international artists who can teach classes and workshops in photographic still and moving image media. The ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre’ will ensure the long-term sustainability of the Women in Photography project as well as create a meeting place for artists of the Himalayan region and beyond to share their images and ideas. Graduates of the Women in Photography program will be employed by the ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre’ giving them a chance to interact with professional photographers in a professional setting. The ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre’ business will offset the costs of continued delivery of the Women in Photography program to young women interested in the photographic image arts in three ways:
• Firstly, by providing market rate professional developing and printing services;
• Secondly, by charging membership to visiting photographers who wish to use the facilities;
• Thirdly, by renting out of cameras, computer stations, lighting equipment, studios and a darkroom and printing laboratories for private professional use.
We are presenting this proposal to foundations and private individuals to accumulate the total cost of creating the ‘Himalayan Photographic Centre.’ We can start the centre for approximately $190,000. Of this $140,000 will be expenses for printing equipment, $20,000 for website/advertising and $30,000 for consumables for the first two years of operations.
1 comment:
Manju, have a happy New Year 2006. Best wishes. Darren Jackson.
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