.....with love from sarajevo

~Recently I was approached by a friend, Omer Kreso, to get the word out about a charity project he is working on. His inspired project, with love from sarajevo , is working to bring photographers to Sarajevo to hold clinics and teach kids about photography and hopefully break down some complicated, cultural barriers in this war ravaged country. The project touched me because as a young awkward teen I found the realism of photography gave confidence to my budding artistic voice. I think it is important for young people to develop and experiment with reality and vision and this project looks to be promising in allowing for that development.



.....here is the skinny directly from the project website

The Project

In the summer of 2008, I came on holiday to Sarajevo, the home of my parents and grandparents, and for the first time saw true destruction. The occasional building was in shambles, of course, but truly haunting was the city's people. Fragmented and disturbed by years of war, a yoke of hopelessness burdens the people of BiH in a way one can't understand without seeing it.

Still pondering this despair later at the Sarajevo film festival, I perhaps serendipitously sat in on a talk by Kevin Spacey. Not normally one to be swayed by movie stars, I was surprised when the Usual Suspects star moved me. He said he was glad to see how art could bring people together despite the fact that, less than a decade prior, they had been literally and figuratively torn apart by war. It was then and there that I decided to begin a project of my own, a project designed to bring the people of BiH together with art, if only for a few precious moments.

With the help of some of the best photographers I know, I intend to tour Bosnia and Herzegovina and document her post-war landscape. The photographs and stories we collect will be used to remind other outsiders that even when battlefields fall silent, the scourge of war remains. More than simply documentarians, however, our collective will also serve as young ambassadors. Our project in BiH will not be complete until we give back to the community, holding photography workshops with interested young citizens. The conclusion of their lessons will be the students taking cameras for themselves to explore their world through - pardon the pun - a whole new lens. Their images and ours in tow, we'll then hold gallery shows in New York and Los Angeles and, if luck allows, the war-torn lands of the Middle East. As much as it is a mission to present the dangers of aggression and violence, it's also one designed to highlight the benefits of kindness, compassion and education.

(~ and from Omer )
.......What I need from everyone is a little help getting my message out. Please help me by passing along this e-mail to your friends, telling people about what I’m doing, posting links on blogs, or by putting me into contact with people who may be able to help me make this project go. I am a big believer in do-it-yourself ideas and this is really DIY! So here are the links:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1161261
and
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1182487

There are several books to choose from and the proceeds go to making this project happen.




All the photos used in this post were taken by Omer Kreso himself. The books contain many of these images and more. His images are captivating, and he is quite prolific, you can look through both books entirely on the mentioned links and you can also check his work out on his flickr photostream.
This is a great cause and the work is lovely to look at .