"I couldn't stop laughing when I saw the looks on the high schoolers' faces when I started showing them how to use a disposable camera."
Increased ACCESS is partnering with remote Indigenous communities and their education departments to pilot a fun, new photography project designed to develop empathy while also garnering valuable youth perspectives on animals and safety. Prizes are awarded to the 'best' photos.
After delivering an in-person presentation related to dog safety and animal care, the Increased ACCESS team distribute single-use (recyclable), professional, black and white cameras to students interested in participating in the project.
The students are then instructed in how to use the 'old-school' camera (including how to turn the thumb-dial to advance to the next frame, the limitation of only being able to take 27 photographs, and that there is very little opportunity for editing and correcting the images once they have been taken) which results in blank stares and questions like, Can I just use my iPhone?
This quick tutorial is followed by a slide presentation covering some photography basics including paying attention to lighting, composition, etc. Throughout the presentation, the students are prompted to think about seeing their community, things they like, and whatever else catches their eye, from different perspectives, such as from the point of view of a dog or a cat.
This is a soft invitation to experience spaces while 'standing in another's shoes'.
When all the photos have been taken (just 27 exposures per camera), the cameras are returned to Increased ACCESS and developed. The students then receive their printed photos. Increased ACCESS assesses the photos and awards prizes to the 'best' ones ($75 to $400 gift cards) that are made into a fundraising calendar.
In addition, some photos will be selected to be posted on Increased ACCESS' photo-sharing page where the public can license the photos for use. The license fee is paid to the young photographer.
If your school is interested in learning more about this fun project and how Increased ACCESS can help put it together, please get in touch: info@increasedaccess.org
The inspiration for this project was a phone call - another person had been attacked by a dog in a remote community where there aren't any animal services. And by 'aren't any animal services', we mean that the closest access to veterinary services are so distant that they might as well be on the moon. Animal shelters are even further away and already filled beyond capacity.
Without access to these sorts of services, communities have very few options when community health and safety is compromised by dogs and cats.
Note: Dogs and cats can threaten community health and safety in many ways, from under-socialized and/or desperate dogs jumping on (and dangerously knocking over), biting, and attacking community members, to being vectors of diseases, to being attractants for wild animals to enter human-populated areas and increasing human/wildlife conflict risks.
Some rural and remote communities facing these sorts of community health & safety challenges make the difficult decision to organize a 'dog shoot' day to cull the out-of-control dogs. It is a hard albeit an affordable option that is within the capacity of the community. It is also a option that comes with a lot of negative judgement, especially from people and organizations outside of the community.
This lack of empathy for the impossible situation that these rural and remote communities face is unfortunate. Rather than judging the decisions these communities are making, we should try to understand why they are making them and work to change the causes: a long-standing, systemic lack of access to essential services like vet care.
To learn more about how Increased ACCESS is working with Indigenous communities to innovate community safety by increasing the access communities have to essential animal-related services and resources, email info@increasedaccess.org
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