Children’s photos are on display at Manezh Central Exhibition Hall this week as part of the charity program “Sotvori Sebya,” or “Create Yourself,” a Moscow Times initiative that aims to help disabled and sick children by encouraging them to make their own art.
“We can give clothes to these children or improve their food intake, but giving them a profession or even a hobby, this is the best thing we can do,” said Olga Sviblova, director of the Moscow House of Photography, which set up a photography study session earlier this year for the program.
“The camera is an instrument with which a child sees light and bright objects and becomes independent and adapted to life in the future. In fact, every shot is a form of self-expression,” she said.
The Moscow House of Photography sent two talented Russian photographers, Sergei Kivrin and Vladimir Vyatkin, to teach children at the Center of Social Rehabilitation for Disabled Children in southern Butovo.
The results of their work are now on display at the Manezh, one of the most prestigious exhibition halls in Russia.
“We get inside their world with a camera, we step into a universe that seemed to be closed, and suddenly we open it,” Sviblova said at the opening of the exhibition Sunday.
“The main aim of the exhibition is to help children,” said Marina Gardamshina, account manager of the program. “If even one child becomes an artist or a photographer in the
future, it means that our work was worth it.”
“Sotvori Sebya” runs through Oct. 19 at Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, 1 Manezh Square. Metro Okhotny Ryad, Teatralnaya, Alexandrovsky Sad. 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., closed Mon. 698-1660, Sotvorisebya.ru. Free entrance.
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