Through Our Lens Gallery

THROUGH OUR LENS:
Community Media Project

"Women's Resource Center is ever grateful to partner with PhotoForward to develop photography and multi-media workshops for our participants and clients. By creating a space for creativity, women are also gaining a voice in their community in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We see women thrive, speak out, share and advocate for women in ways that were not previously available in our existing programs. PhotoForward workshops complement the mission of WRC, which celebrates empowerment and freedom for of women in Cambodia."

The Through Our Lens (TOL) media education program was developed through a partnership with PhotoForward and Women's Resource Center and offers workshops and training for adult women in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Through photography, documentary film, oral history collection, and community research, participants are recording the stories of Cambodian women and girls to better understand their lives and the issues that are important to them.

THROUGH OUR LENS:
ARTIST PORTFOLIO

Meet the Through Our Lens Media Team and view their photographs documenting the lives of women and girls in their communities. The images were created as part of the digital photography and media workshop series in partnership with Women’s Resource Center. Through their photographs, our artists invite us into their homes and communities and offer an intimate glimpse of the vital and varied roles that women play in Cambodian society.

The photographs featured here were included in the exhibition Through Our Lens: Cambodian Women's Lives and Work at New Leaf Gallery in Siem Reap Cambodia, which opened in March 2014. The exhibition was a highlight of the gallery's 2014 International Women's Day celebration.

TOL GALLERY and ARTIST PORTFOLIOS

THROUGH OUR LENS:
COMMUNITY RESEARCH PROJECT

The Through Our Lens (TOL) community research project is the product of a two month workshop series and is comprised of documentary photographs, peer research and community interviews created and collected by the nine women and girls in the TOL Media Team.

In addition to training in documentary video and oral history collection, the participants learned to use computer tablets and an innovative research software provided by Map Your World--an innovative media project of The John W. Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities at Stanford University and Independent Television Services (ITVS). MYW combines new technology with community outreach and was inspired by the trailblazing community mapping project created by the children of the Prayasam youth program in Kolkota, India.

BEHIND THE LENS:
MAKING MEDIA MATTER

The Through Our Lens program is a true collaboration where the participants lead the development and implementation of the projects and joyfully shared their ideas, talents, time and experience. It has also been a unique opportunity to experience how media education programs can connect women with their community and cultural history and engage them with the important work of local organizations such as Women's Resource Center and international programs like Map Your World.

We are all grateful for the TOL Media Team's generosity, hard work, and commitment and for the opportunity to share information and stories across communities, cultures, and countries.