Youthography is a Youth Exchange funded by the Erasmus+ programme and organized by the organization Maghweb, the event was held in the city of Palermo from the 27th of March to the 4th of April with photography being the theme of the project. The participants involved were from Italy, Lithuania, Portugal and Romania.
For seven working days, the participants did activities related to photography, while at the same time getting involved in the local life and local ways of living of the people of Palermo. This paper has the goal of explaining what we learned on our time here and also to show you some of our favourite pictures taken during this project.
Thanks to this project we have had the chance to see how people are responding to the idea of photography and the way that we can express a social reality by using a simple tool, our cameras. Given the opportunity to connect with people from Palermo and not only, we have been able to realize that the hurdles, the barriers and the differences can be overcomed and photography can be used as a link with the others around us. Also, taking into account the fact that we succeeded in expressing the social environment of this interesting and dynamic city, we experienced the possibility to say so many things just with a camera.
Furthermore, another aspect related to the challenging activity of travelling has led us not only to discover the unique places that will stay in our memory forever but also to take part for a little while in the amazing lifestyle of the people in Palermo and realize how unique they are. Gaining an experience that allowed us to see the beauty in every corner visited, to feel the uniqueness of the atmosphere around us and to taste the specificity of the Italian so well known gastronomy introduced us to another culture and civilization. From an impressive architecture to the splendour of the nature or the sound of the sea the achievement of feeling the city of Palermo will always be relived when we look at the photographs that we took.
And let’s not forget about the valuable part of making some real connections between youngsters from different countries and with different backgrounds. We experienced how photography can connect people in a very powerful way. Different mindsets, different attitudes towards this powerful tool of expression are a reflection of how wonderful, energetic and diverse the youth is. With Youthography we captured a moment for a lifetime.
*Testo realizzato dai partecipanti di Youthography e facente parte del final work del progetto