Photography exhibition: ‘With own eyes’

Until 15 February 2010, you can catch an extra-special Roma photography exhibition in the Galerie auf der Pawlatsche. ‘Peskere jakhenca – with own eyes’ features pictures by children and teenagers from a Slovakian Roma village, showing their daily life as they see it.

There has been a real boom in photos of Roma children in the last few years. Indeed, Roma photography has become a separate genre, in particular since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Everybody has seen the pictures of small, dirt-smudged urchins dressed in rags, wide eyes gazing into the camera. This kind of photography ‘from above’ has been partly responsible for fuelling prejudices about Roma and Sinti, while creating stereotypes about people living in dirt, poverty and despair.

New perspectives of a Romani village

The ‘Peskere jakhenca – with own eyes’ project aims to do away with such prejudices and uses photography to enable a more respectful approach to Roma and Sinti. The idea arose to give children and teenagers the chance to create their own artistic portrayals of their surroundings and thus show the public a different picture of everyday life in a Romani village – free of the usual clichés and seen through the eyes of the youngsters themselves.

Pictures from the children’s everyday lives

The two project initiators, Barbara Tiefenbacher and Stefan Benedik Karner, spent four days in the little village of Roškovce. They started off the project by bringing along dozens of cameras and rolls of film. Over 60 children were quick to get involved and 1,400 pictures were taken within two days. During their second visit, a month later, the initiators were able to show the village the results of the project. The children helped to select the best pictures, and these can now be seen at the exhibition.

Pictures on tour across Europe

In November, the exhibition was opened in Roškovce by the mayor, Vlado Ledecký. The young artists received a framed copy of their pictures as a small thank-you for their involvement.

The exhibition, which is a travelling one, is on show until 15 February 2010 in the Galerie auf der Pawlatsche, in Court 3 of the university campus. It will next stop off in Prague and Brno.