Wendy Ewald: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

On April 3, 1998, the students of Amy Symons' eight grade English class at St. Paul's Episcopal School participated in an internet chat session with author, photographer, and educator Wendy Ewald. Ms. Ewald was visiting the Berkeley campus as the Una Lecturer at the Townsend Center for the Humanities. Prior to the chat, students read excerpts from Wendy Ewald's book, I Dreamed I Had a Girl in My Pocket: The Story of an Indian Village with stories and photographs by the children of Vichya, India (New York: Doubletake Books and W.W. Norton, 1996). The students had prepared for the chat by participating in a discussion of the book with Harry Kreisler. A special website (http//:globetrotter.berkeley.edu/Ewald/) devoted to Ms. Ewald's work was created by the Institute of International Studies. Twenty-four students participated in the chat. They were divided in eight groups of three, with each group taking the name of an Indian child in Ms. Ewald's book. The following is a transcript of the chat. Students posted their questions as Ms. Ewald was answering a prior question. This procedure conserved time, which was limited by the 40-minute class period. The posted transcript places the answer next to the question.

Samju: Hello.

Pratap: Hello.

Hasmukh: Hello.

Samju: How is everybody?

Tidi: Hello.

Hansi: HELLO Everyone!!!!

Sakkaram: Hello.

Samju: Hello.

Manju: Is Wendy there?

Harry: Hello students of St. Paul's. Welcome to the Institute of International Studies in cyberspace. Hello Amy and Renae. I am please to introduce you to Wendy Ewald, whose book you have read and whose web site you have looked at.

Hasmukh: Hi Wendy.

Tidi: Hi Ms. Ewald!

Samju: Hi.

Sakkaram: Hi Wendy, pleased to meet you.

Wendy: Hello, I am looking forward to talking with you and I wish the kids from India were here with me.

Tidi: We wish the kids were here too.

Wendy: I am ready for the first question, and I understand you will identify yourselves as you ask the questions.

Tidi: Hansi wants to know alot of things about you.

Manju: Wendy we have a question for you ...

Pratap: Hi Ms. Ewald. So, how did you become interested in photography? Who were some of the early influences on your career?

Wendy: Pratap, I started taking pictures when I was in high school. In the summers, I worked with kids on an Indian reservation in Canada, and that's when I got the idea to give the kids the cameras to take pictures of what they saw around them.

Tidi: Wow.

Samju: I've also been interested in photography.

Wendy: Pratap, who are the members of your group?

Pratap: Zac W and Geoff.

Manju: Why did you choose India? Why not Africa, for an example?

Wendy: Manju, I chose India because I had seen pictures taken there which interested me I wanted to see how children there would use the camera. There are so many things to see there.

Manju: What pictures interested you from India?

Wendy: I was interested in seeing what they would choose to take pictures of and how they would compose them.

Tidi: We have a question for you, Wendy ...

Samju: Has your experience in India changed the way you look at our culture here?

Wendy: Yes, it has. It is so different from our life here. But there are parallels. For example, the caste system is a system which puts people into categories of privilege. Things like that occur here but they are not as easy to see.

Samju: Did different castes look down upon you?

Wendy: Samju, good question. Because I am not a Hindu, I don't have a caste, and in Hinduism, if you don't have a caste, you are essentially an untouchable.

Samju: Did the kids in India know anything about cameras before you came?

Wendy: Samju, the kids in this village of Vichya did not know what a photograph was, although they had seen videotapes. They thought the way a camera worked was that you imagined a picture and the camera would produce that picture. So I had to show them that you had to point the camera at what you wanted to make a picture of.

Sakkaram: This is Zach, Shalaya and Shandra. What was your favorite part of India?

Wendy: My favorite part of India was the tiny village I lived in because it is the part of India I know best.

Hasmukh: ~sigh~

Hasmukh: From James and John: What was frustrating about working with these kids?

Wendy: These kids were very excited about taking pictures. But in the beginning, they didn't always think about what they were doing. So there were some broken cameras and ruined rolls of film. Also, I wasn't able to speak to them in their language, so sometimes communication was difficult.

Hansi: Did the kids learn quickly how to use a camera?

Wendy: Hansi, yes, the kids learned quickly to use a camera. But there was a difference between the kids who were in school and those who weren't Those not in school weren't used to learning new processes. So they took longer to understand the sequence necessary in making pictures.

Sakkaram: Were you ever uncomfortable or afraid in a new area with people you didn't know?

Wendy: Sakkarma, yes, I am usually uncomfortable in a new place. I don't understand what is expected of me. And sometimes I don't understand the language. So it often takes me months before I feel comfortable.

Tidi: Wendy, may we please ask you a question?

Wendy: Go ahead, Tidi.

Tidi: How did you react to the way people treat women and children in different countries?

Wendy: In India, I was shocked by the way women were treated. I am often upset by the way children are treated in many cultures, including our own.

Manju: Were you afraid of working with gangs, and what gangs did you work with?

Wendy: Manju, I haven't worked with any gangs. I did work with street children in Bombay. In Bombay, the kids were amazing photographers because they had to watch what was going on on the street because there was always a danger they would be kidnapped and sold as prostitutes.

Tidi: How were the women treated?

Wendy: Tidi, the women were married usually to men in exchange for a dowry, which means they were sort of sold. And they have no rights and must do the work their mother-in-law tells them to do.

Tidi: How awful.

Wendy: In cases where the marriage doesn't work, sometimes, the women are literally killed. For example, Sajjan's father killed her mother.

Hasmukh: Wendy, what was it like working with the Appalachian people?

Wendy: I lived and worked in Appalachia for seven years. I had a farm and I farmed with my neighbors, so I was very close to the people there. And it was natural and easy to work with the children.

Tidi: How did you become interested in photography, and how did you connect the idea of photography with exploring different countries and cultures?

Wendy: Because the first project I did was with Canadian Indians, I saw the power of photography to explain another reality or culture.

Hansi: What has been the most interesting culture that you have worked with when taking pictures?

Wendy: Hansi, they all are interesting in different ways. In Mexico, the children made amazing pictures of their fantasies, but in South Africa, the kids made great portraits.

Samju: Did the kids in India pose?

Wendy: I took a picture of each one of them and those are the pictures in the beginning of the book.

Manju: How close were you to a major city or "civilized" place?

Wendy: In India, I was only about thirty miles away from a city, but there was no connection between the people who lived in the village and the city.

Sakkaram: Was it hard to hold back your aggravation about the systems and how they treat women?

Wendy: Sakkaram, yes, it was frightening to see what was happening to the kids in India.

Tidi: Really.

Manju: What was the Indian children's first reactions when you told them to photograph their dreams? How did you tell them to do it?

Wendy: When I told the kids to photograph their dreams, some of them were very excited about the idea. The others, mostly children not in school, said they didn't dream or fantasize. They were uncomfortable with the idea of creating a photograph.

Tidi: Do you see yourself in the same line of work ten years from now?

Wendy: Tidi, yes, I see myself working as an artist and teacher. I may be making different kinds of pictures or teaching different courses.

Samju: Where do you currently live and what is your next project?

Wendy: Samju, I live in the Hudson Valley in New York but I teach at Duke University in North Carolina. Right now I am working on another book which will bring together all the work I have done with children.

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