Photocircle Blog

Our new Facebook photo competition (05.05. – 19.06.) has started yesterday. Join to win great prizes! The photographer that gets the most likes for his picture receives…

First Prize: Canon EOS M (RRP 499 €)

Second Prize: 50 € Photocircle gift card

Third Prize: 25 € Photocircle gift card

4th to 10th Prize: 10 € Photocircle gift card

And here are the rules of the game…

Upload your best landscape photo (you can upload only one photo!) to the page of the competition. You can vote for as many photos as you want but just once per photo.

Have a sunny Monday!

This week we completed our 6th project. Thanks to your support we are able to give 5 girls in Bangladesh access to elementary school! For project details have a look at our project page on our website.

Here we present you the photos that closed the circle. By selling these great pictures we can now give something back to the region that makes these photos something special!  Click on them to go directly to the galleries of our photographers…

When the Afghan painter Rada Akbar started documenting her surroundings with a camera, she soon found her passion for photography and thus made it her profession. Somehow she has always expressed herself through art. “I don’t photograph subjects, I photograph the way they make me feel”, 25-year-old Rada says and admits to consider her approach as a bit of a strange, yet honest concept. “I wrestle with every image I shoot. I assume perfection is possible and I want to wring it out of every picture.”

“This building was built about 80 years ago. It’s situated opposite of a famous castle in Kabul. The building has been destroyed during the civil wars and the government still hasn’t made an effort to rebuild it. It’s a footprint of war but I can see that there is life, colorfully displayed by these balloons.”

Rada Akbar – A role model for other Afghan women

As a female artist Rada Akbar feels responsible towards Afghan society. She seeks to be perceived publicly as a role model for other Afghan women, capable of working successfully in her profession. Despite recent general improvements for educated women in the larger cities, suppression and violence against women have escalated in Afghan society due to the increased ideological religious extremism and political instability, as press statistics and Human Right’s reports emphasize. Rada fears the circumstances will collapse as soon as international forces leave. “The situation in Afghanistan is not assured. Right now we’re in a state of emergency that may exacerbate corruption and mistrust towards the government,” Rada Akbar issues her concern.

We are happy to offer some selected photos of Rada Akbar in her gallery on Photocircle. With her work you can support Syrian refugees in Jordan.

Thanks to your amazing support, we could finance our second project in Berlin. With the project support gathered over the last months we are now able to improve the educational opportunities of three children with Arab migrant background in Berlin by giving them private lessons and coaching.

The outstanding work and engagement of Schülerpaten Berlin improves the educational opportunities of many children in Berlin that would otherwise likely take another path in life. At the same time, university students show an enormous potential to engage in volunteer work. Schülerpaten Berlin e.V. provides a platform to bring both volunteers and children together in a one-on-one mentorship relation.

This project seeks to pave the way for better educational opportunities by individual tutoring, to broaden the horizon of both kids and tutors and to enhance cultural exchange. Seminars for volunteers convey educational skills as well as knowledge and understanding of the Arab culture. Al Nadi, a consulting center for Arab women in Berlin, matches mentors and mentees. The training and placement of one volunteer costs 150 €. With your support, Schülerpaten e.V. will be able to train and place tutors for three more children.

At the same time, university students show an enormous potential to engage in volunteer work. Schülerpaten Berlin e.V. provides a platform to bring both volunteers and children together in a one-on-one mentorship relation.

This project seeks to pave the way for better educational opportunities by individual tutoring, to broaden the horizon of both kids and tutors and to enhance cultural exchange. Seminars for volunteers convey educational skills as well as knowledge and understanding of the Arab culture. Al Nadi, a consulting center for Arab women in Berlin, matches mentors and mentees. The training and placement of one volunteer costs 150 €.

Thanks to our project, Schülerpaten e.V. will be able to train and place tutors for three children.

A few weeks ago we launched a survey and asked you in which country we should support our next a project. Your decision: Burkina Faso.

Today we are very happy to introduce you to our new partner and present to you our new project. The project from the small NGO Netzwerk Wunschträume (Network Dreamworks) was suggested to us by Walter Korn, who is also offering some of his work on Photocircle. Walter Korn himself is strongly commited to the project and working as a volunteer for the ngo. Only two months ago we published his sad and moving story about the young gold diggers in Burkina Faso on our blog.

We are therefore very happy to help the great work of the dedicated people of Network Dreamworks. From today on you can support their work too. By buying or printing your photos on Photocircle you’ll help giving one child the opportunity to go to kindergarten for two years.

Since November 2010, 52 girls and boys from age of 3 to 6 have been attending the kindergarten of Wend Raabo School Complex in the suburbs of Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou. It is the first kindergarten for poor families and it is affordable compared to other kindergarten around. The total cost is 50 Euros per child and school year (9 months). A private kindergarten usually charges three or four times as much. Only a few upper class families or parents from abroad can afford that much.

The children are looked after, study, play, sing, dance and receive lunch every day, consisting of a warm meal, a drink and a piece of fruit. A solid groundwork for health and education.

With finely woven nets on bamboo frames, Ismail Hossain and his cousin Bashar fish for shrimp larvae in the surf. They sell their catch to the local shrimp farms. After the cyclone Sidr, the price for the larvae has dropped from 200 Taka ($2.00) per Hundred to 50 Taka ($0.50) per Hundred.

This shot was taken in  Kuakata (Bangladesh) in February 2008 by Jakob Berr. By selling his work on Photocircle he supports a local development project from the ngo Netz e.V. which supports the living conditions of this community. We have already financed over 90% of the project and are confident that very soon 5 more girls will be able to attend school.

“European boxing continues to be pure force. We move like salsa dancers. It allows us to defend ourselves better and we suffer less….like the young Muhammad Ali”, Cuban boxing coach Garbey says.

This photo shows his boxing school for kids in Havana. It was taken by German photographer Simon Bode. With his photos you can support our projects in Haiti, Colombia and Brazil.

Please join us today for the first Girl Friday gallery production. The exhibition is a discovery and exploration of FREEDOM through the lens of four young female photographers – Jessica Polar, Justina, Wilhelm, Ottilie Maters and Marta Suslow. The intent of the organizers is to tell a visual story of the pursuit of freedom through photography. We hope it’ll inspire you, elevate you, surprise you, make you smile, make you think and encourage YOU to be…FREE.

The prints of this exhibition where printed by Photocircle. This exhibition chose to support our project with Plan International. This project aims at freeing Kamalari girls from exploitative working conditions to grant them access to education and a self-determined life.

We would be happy to meet you here tonight:

Closing Party

Friday, 1.March 2013

19:00-21:00

Nhow Hotel Galerie Berlin

Stralauer Allee 3

10245 Berlin

http://www.nhow-hotels.com/berlin/gallery

In our young history – thanks to your support – we have already completed 3 of our projects. Due to the tragic death of our godchild, Jyoti, we had to stop our project in India.

Now, we would like to start a new project and get you involved. In which country would you like us to start our next project? Please vote here or on our Facebook page within the next 7 days. After that we will gather suggestions for projects and partners.

powered by tricider