The goal with this short project was to help immigrants use photography to tell about their meeting with this new land. The idea was to hand out disposable cameras and let the participants decide for themselves what they thought was important to photograph.
We contacted the Lillehammer Educational Center that provides various activities for immigrants; people there were interested in a cooperative arrangement lasting five weeks.

The project started May 18th 2010 with eleven participants in the group. This included two people from Iraq, three from Eritrea, one from Ethiopia, one from Afghanistan, two from Burma, one from Somalia, and one from Pakistan. The group had both women and men between the ages of 18 and 47 years. Proficiency in the Norwegian language varied greatly.

The first time we came from the Oppland Archive to a classroom at the Education Center we presented the project in more detail. We also told about the project with documentation of the newer immigration to the area and used power –point and digital story telling. A brochure about the project was also handed out.
We distributed the disposable cameras and suggested some relevant issues as encouragement to picture taking: Something that is typical for living in this new country. Something you like or dislike, think is strange or different, fine or not so fine, or something typical for how you live here. The participants were also encouraged to write a short story related to one of the pictures they took.

The following Tuesday the participants were invited to the Oppland Archive at Maihaugen. Three of the original participants were absent but two new ones came. One of the participants had already taken pictures with all of the film in his camera and received a new one. Participants got a tour of the Archive and a short introduction into what a private archive like this one is like. They got a look at documents on parchment, old photos of Lillehammer, post cards, newspapers published illegally during WW2, photographs, and so on. They responded by saying they thought the visit was interesting.
They were given the deadline of one week later to complete the photography and deliver the cameras back to the school on the Tuesday after.

The next week the films were delivered for developing. The work to write a short story began. Some people managed on their own to accomplish what they wished to write about while others needed help to get underway.

In the course of the project the participants also were invited to the Maihaugen Museum to see a photography exhibit titled “The Dream about Europe”. Some cameras were also delivered then and we reviewed the status of the photography and writing.

Tuesday June 15th was the last day of the project. Eight students met at the classroom at the Educational Center. Six participants had taken photos and written stories about them. One of the students worked extra hard on the project and had written stories for many pictures.
Two other students who hadn’t taken pictures wrote a story based on a picture they chose from the work of others.
Therefore at the conclusion there were eight small stories related to pictures. These were read and the pictures shown as the closure of the project.

See some of the stories and pictures here: