Miss Arlington and 8 students were invited by Jessica Fulford-Dobson, a portrait photographer, to an illustrated evening talk about her work and it’s impact locally and internationally.
She talked clearly about her involvement with a project that was set up to encourage young people into education and to break down the boundaries in place stopping children, particularly girls, from engaging in sports in Kabul, Afghanistan. Her photography documented the unadulterated joy of skateboarding, some of the girls were enjoying it for the first time and others who had been part of the project for years were taking on the role of teacher. Jessica Fulford-Dobson discussed why this project was so successful and how skateboarding, which was an unknown sport in Afghanistan, gave them the chance to escape the cultural preconceptions that may have been inhibiting.
The girls came away thinking about how photography played an important role in the communication of this message. We ourselves discussed how we in western society should challenge our own preconceptions of daily life on the other side of the world and also about a sport that we often pigeon hole to a certain demographic. We were very grateful to have been invited by Jessica and we hope in the future she will be able to visit us at Francis Holland and talk about her work further.
