About this project

A picture can only do good if it is seen. Still images have the power to challenge conventional wisdom, allow us to reflect on the poignancy of the moment, and ultimately cause change. At Truth With A Camera Workshops, www.truthwithacamera.org and www.truthworkshopblog.org, we teach students how to shoot from the heart, challenge their story-telling abilities, and engage them in brining these still moments to life in creative and intimate ways all while working on specific stories with nonprofits and NGOs in developing countries and the United States.

Truth With A Camera is itself part of the nonprofit, Edom Foundation, which hosted the first TWAC workshop in 1994.

Now, we have the opportunity to share the amazing images created by our students and staff in a formal setting at the TCC Visual Arts Center gallery so that others can be educated, motivated and inspired to help.

We ask for your help, in the form of a donation, to support this show. We aren't hanging the images in fancy frames or printing on fine-art paper. They will be simply presented on clips hung throughout the gallery. Over 120 images will be on display. The power isn't in the presentation but in the subject matter of the image.
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More background:

For all the twists and turns the downward economy has thrown at life, two worlds that have arguably been hit hardest are non-profits and the newspaper industry. Scores of both have folded. Many of those that have survived did so by reinventing themselves. Similarly, a new generation of photojournalists are looking toward alternate paths to standard newspaper and magazine reporting, finding poignant personal experiences in aiding non-profits looking for more compelling ways to disseminate their stories. Anticipating this transition, Truth With a Camera (TWAC), a highly respected photography workshop with deep roots in Hampton Roads, and specifically TCC’s Visual Arts Center, reinvented itself in 2008 to provide learning opportunities for young photographers in developing countries.

In May 2009, TWAC partnered with the University of Guadalajara, Mexico for its first international workshop during which 19 students and several non-profit organizations were paired to tell compassionate and gripping stories. The images were then donated back to the organizations to promote their humanitarian efforts.

In January 2010, TWAC traveled to Quito, Ecuador where a similar process took place. Mentored by professionals, students followed their non-profit counterparts to photographically document and tell the stories for those unable to speak for themselves. This valuable and meaningful collaboration continues to inspire hope and promise for the future.

Dr. Vme Edom Smith founded the Truth With a Camera workshop in 1994 to continue the work of parents, Cliff and Vi Edom. The Edom’s founded the first University of Missouri Photo Workshop in 1949 to “show truth with a camera.” Since that time, photojournalists have educated the world about war, hunger, violence and abuse, among other universal issues.