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Published on January 23, 2008

Visitors to the Phuket Aquarium on Children's Day earlier this month had to make way for a crowd of kids rushing around with cameras and, oddly enough, tags around their necks that identified them as "photojournalists".

These 125 youngsters were serious too: They'd just been taught the best way to take a fish's picture.

Most of the photographers - Buddhists, Muslims and Moken (sea gypsies) from Thailand along with Burmese migrants - live in the provinces hammered by the tsunami. They were joined by 45 kids from Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, the provinces that get hammered every day by violence of a different sort.

Ranging in age from nine to 15, the youngsters had been coached by professional photographers at "InSight Out!" workshops supported by Unicef. They took photos of their own communities and wrote stories to describe their images.

The Phuket Aquarium is hosting an exhibition of 120 of their pictures until February 29.

InSight Out was born in the tsunami's aftermath, when local and foreign professional photographers who'd covered the catastrophe decided to give the youngest survivors a way of getting their feelings out.

Not surprisingly, many of the photos they've taken reflect their memories and their sense of loss. There are shots of ruined buildings, ravaged trees and empty beaches.

Three years after the tsunami the project continues, but with a different purpose: creating friendship among children from different social backgrounds.

"Normally kids from different communities don't mix much," says project director Jeanne Hallacy. "But these kids have become friends and are beginning to understand that they actually have a lot in common, whether they're Buddhist, Muslim, Moken or Burmese."

A couple of days before the aquarium trip, the children made the rounds of several communities and schools in Phang Nga to tell other youngsters about the project and show them their photos.

"The girl in this picture was lonely because her father went out to the sea," said 10-year-old Sakifa Withikul from Narathiwat. Her audience was 100 students at Baan Chao Thai Mai School, most of whom are Moken.

"I took this picture in a fishing village in Narathiwat," Sakifa said. "I wanted to show people that Narathiwat also has a fishing industry that's just as good as the ones in other provinces."

Project coordinator Piyanudda Dhanasiri says taking the kids on tour gives them the confidence to speak to groups and the opportunity to educate others about their lives and cultures.

"When we went to Tung Wah, a Moken village, the children who were from there showed their photos to their families, and some of their mothers started to cry," Piyanudda says. "Some parents hadn't really understood what their children were learning through this project until they saw the photos. It really surprised them, and it made them very, very proud."

The aquarium trip gave the youngsters an even larger audience - there were 10,000 visitors there on Children's Day. About 60 new kids signed up for photo lessons.

"Our kids took the new kids around the aquarium and showed them how to take pictures of the fish," Piyanudda says. "They did a pretty good job as teachers."

The quality of the photos has been impressive.

Freelance photographer Mongkhonsawat Luaengvorapant, one of the InSight Out trainers, points to a shot by 10-year-old Ahmad Wongsontham. It shows a colourful clutch of crabs in a net being pulled out of the sea.

It is, says Mongkhonsawat, "truly incredible". Ahmad had leaned out over the water and turned his camera upside down to shoot up into the net.

"I was shooting alongside him and it never occurred to me to try this," says Mongkhonsawat. "It shows how creative children can be and how they look at the world differently than adults."

Every child who participated in the workshops now at least knows how to take photos, Mongkhonsawat says, and many have become their schools' official photographers for special events.

Mongkhonsawat is delighted that the project has instilled in the kids a love of photography.

"Some say they'll start saving up their money so they can buy a camera like the one I use. They tell me, 'I'll be a photographer when I grow up!'"

This year InSight Out is planning to open fresh opportunities for children in small and isolated island communities where income has been hampered by tourism. An online market for the children's photos is being considered to help bring in needed funding.

Nattha Keenapan

Special to The Nation

Phuket