My Story :: Photo Programs for Youth

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These photographs were taken by youth living at Park Vista, a housing development in outer-South East Portland. Over 90% of Park Vista’s residents are Russian and Ukrainian immigrants. For 4 weeks, My Story worked with 8 youth living at Park Vista. The workshop was a tremendous success! Like all our workshops, the Park Vista workshop ended with community photo show. It was great seeing all of the kids, parents, and grandparents crowd into the community room to see these photos hanging on the walls. Thank you Human Solutions, Inc. for making this workshop possible!

I like living in this place. When I moved here, I it brought back memories of Uzbekistan, with all the Russian people who live here.

I still want to go back to Russia. They say that America has freedom and Russia doesn’t. It turns out that you don’t have much freedom in America before you’re eighteen years old. In Russia, you have freedom at any age.

I moved to the States when I was in the 4th grade. Before that, we had a big house and lots of animals. My favorite animals were the geese.

When I was little, I rode horses every day.

$I like to play soccer. I\'ve been playing this sport for a long time. I just found out about basketball. I started playing basketball three months ago. It\'s an interesting sport too.$

In Moldova, the days are long! There, you do chores all the time and you still have a whole bunch of time left, but here you don’t do many chores, but you always run out of time.

When my dad was small, his dad would take pictures. People would bring them film and they would work all day in the darkroom. He says that they always smelled like chemicals.

I like taking portraits. They show you things about a person because you get closer. When time passes you can see how a person was.

Anna and Mariam are very close sisters. They are always together, and when they hug, their powers get bigger.

Mariam has never left her bicycle before because she says that her bicycle has superpowers and only she can use them!

When David, Mariam, and Anna touch a tree at the same time, rain comes in five seconds. Thunder, lightning, and snowy hail.

I see the world differently now. Now, when I see something, I think, “how would this look if I was taking a picture?”

Park Vista

ElenaAge: 12

I still want to go back to Russia. They say that America has freedom and Russia doesn’t. It turns out that you don’t have much freedom in America before you’re eighteen years old. In Russia, you have freedom at any age.

My Story Workshops :: Every Child Has A Story

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Park Vista

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ElenaAge: 12