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When outsiders try to put a lens on the lives of Shanghai’s migrants — a group receiving more attention these days – they may well encounter problems of access and privacy. After all, they’re on the outside looking in.

In the “My Shanghai” project, however, around 50 children of migrant workers were taught basic photography, armed with cameras, given a roll of film and told to tell their own stories.

The exhibit opens today at TwoCities Gallery at 50 Moganshan Road. Proceeds from sales of some photos will be donated to the Jin Hu Primary School in Minhang District.

On two recent Saturdays, around 35 Chinese and expat volunteers visited the school to glimpse a world quite unlike their own — and to help kids share that world.

Together they taught basic photography to four classes of sixth-graders at the school for migrants’ kids. Four expats were the instructors; Chinese volunteers translated.

Film cameras, mainly provided by individuals and schools in the United States, were given to the students to capture their own lives.

The 11 most evocative winning photos have been enlarged and exhibited with around 100 smaller pictures.

“My Shanghai” was launched with a screening of the Academy Award-winning documentary “Born into Brothels,” attended by most volunteers. It’s about a similar photography project in the red-light district of Kolcata (Calcutta), India.

Eva Ting, director of TwoCities Gallery, wanted to undertake a similar project in Shanghai where little is known about migrant workers and their families. The group is receiving more attention nationwide as many complained of job discrimination and other problems.

“(The film) struck me as a powerful way to bridge the distance between peoples who perhaps don’t fully understand each other,” says Ting. The 29-year-old Chinese American hopes to hold a summer art camp for the migrant workers’ children.

Ting is among an increasing number of artists in Shanghai stepping out of their studios to help migrant students. “My Shanghai” aims to empower the children and give them confidence to express themselves creatively through photography and art. It also aims to increase awareness of the situation and problems of migrant workers and their families.

“Having a foreigner and a Chinese working together and teaching migrant children about photography is really important in showing them they are important individuals,” says Grayson Stallings, 23, one of the American teachers. “We want to let them know that we find real importance in what the children see and we can’t see what they do except through them.”

The photographs have a raw and authentic quality: free from formal aesthetic considerations, they give an insight into the little-seen world of migrant families.

The top prize went to a simple picture of a birdcage against a blank white wall. The message of the cage, of course, is that migrant children are restricted and confined; the blank wall suggests a lack of opportunities. It was taken from a position below the cage and distant, suggesting the young photographer was looking on.

Another photo presents a leafless tree in winter, its branches reaching high into the sky, as if seeking freedom and opportunities. The young photographer shoots upward, but the sky is empty. This image, along with nine other “picks,” will be sold in postcard size for 15 yuan (US$2.10)

Other pictures take an unflinching look at shabby furnishings, wistful siblings hugging toys for sale, and simply happy play with friends in the street.

“I want to show everyone my family,” says 15-year-old He Chuanqi.

Other students feel the same. Most used half the shots on their 36-roll film to take pictures of their families.

The project is also important to the volunteers as it brings together expats and Chinese.

“It was great finally getting to know a small but nevertheless real part of Shanghai rather than just hanging out in a separate world of our own,” says Daniel Allegri,22,an American assistant in the photography class.

(Source: en.beijing2008.cn)