The young talent of Olcott Memorial Higher Secondary School, Besant Nagar have stunned one and all through their photo exhibition “The Dawn of Life is Light’, organized  in their  school premises.  

The students themselves have taken the photographs after a proper training from different photographers who have volunteered in this program. The program has been supported by the school and made possible through a grant from the Youth Parliament Foundation and UNESCO. The students have shown a lot of interest and the other teachers of the school have been very co-operative and supportive too, says Ms.Shoba Narayana, the program coordinator.

B. Sridevi of Class IX  says,  “In society and in the media, there is always a negative perception of youth.  Nobody asks us what youth means to us; what issues in our communities are important to us and what solutions we have to offer.  Our exhibition is our way to voice our stories about our feelings and lives and our perspectives on things we like in our communities and things we hope to change."

“Not only this, the program has also given a chance to us to know Chennai more. It was a wonderful experience clicking photos around. When we went out to take photographs we always asked permission first and explained that we were students who are participating in a school photo program.  Most people said yes and then we would take the photo and say thank you and show them the photograph.  If the person did not want their photo taken then we respected that and did not take the photo. Through this practice we learned art of photography with professionalism”, says Praveen.

The students have gone around the Besant Nagar area for the photographs. Out of the 3000 photographs taken, the best 100 has been shortlisted for the exhibition.

Kalpana