Regent Park Focus

 The session on the 16th of May was used as a round table discussion to talk about the girls' opinion about the program so far. After starting with a quick game, the girls started mentioning things they liked and things they would like improved about the program. They then completed their evaluations and started talking about things they would want to learn in future sessions. On the 23rd, the girls went back to taking pictures, this time they were given even more control of how they wanted it to come out and therefore, they spent a long time situating themselves in places where the sun hit them the way they wanted it to. They also played around a lot with their surroundings finding creative ways to take pictures. The pictures are shown below: \

This session, the girls worked on photography. Since the weather was so nice we decided it would be best to go outside and get natural lighting for the pictures. The girls planned and took each picture, they worked on directing each other while also keeping lighting and the atmosphere of the picture in mind. Near the end of the session, the girls talked about how much they enjoyed taking these pictures and started planning what they would do if they were to film a video instead. One of the girls was really excited about filming videos, she offered a step by step plan about what it would be about and who she would want in it.   Some of the other planned ideas that had to do with fashion and awareness, though we may not have time to do it this year, the girls are already planning for it when programs resume in fall.

April Agally is an aspiring young man. He is eager to learn and already aware of the idea of photography and has creative perspective. We started with my curriculum I prepared for introduction to photography with detailed notes including the meaning of photography; why do we photograph; the different genres of photography; and the most major of all, Understanding Light. The workshop is filled with video tutorials from critiqued YouTube and Agally was given homework to watch the videos in his convenience and to take notes of what he learnt and presented it in the next class. May After enough lecture and understanding of how camera works and its technical adjustments, Agally took the first shot in a studio setup and learned how to light your subject and adjust your camera to get the right photograph. On the following, we went out in Regent Park neighborhood and Agally has taken landscape, street and a few portrait pictures after proper approach and explaining why we are doing...

This session the Little Divas had a showcase and the older Divas were invited to watch! While the Little Divas were getting ready the older Divas and I talked about the UofT Showcase and how they felt it turned out at the end. We then talked about the sessions leading up to it and how everyone's experience went throughout it.   Soon after, we were all invited into the room the showcase was happening at and the Little Divas talked about the work they created and we were able to listen to a song the girls had created and then watched a dance they came up with together which had the message of empowerment implemented into it. Some of the pieces the girls worked on was a wall titled "Black Girl Magic", which included letters the girls had created to people they think embody Black Girl Magic. There was also a section titled The Future which included Time Capsules the girls created. More work created was on advertising, self-portraits, Taking back Stereotypes...

These sessions the girls used to complete their photography projects. The first session was used to learn about editing images with the guest artist Sydonnae. She then showed the girls their pieces compared to the ones they picked during the first session. The girls then said bye to Sydonnae and the session ended.  Some of the Final pictures are shown below, they will be included as part of the showcase.   Upon return to Focus the following Friday (March 29th) the girls went out around the community to take pictures. Before leaving they were asked to pick themes they wanted their photography to be about. They then got into groups and we headed out. The themes picked were: happiness, vacation, and fashion/modern. These pictures taken are shown below, they will be included as part of the showcase. Amna Quaid Azam