Day one: packing

well i am currently wrapping up packing for my two week trip to guatemala. For those of you who do not know what i will explain.

i am currently enrolled in mayterm (summer courses) at john brown university. the two courses i am taking are social documentary photography & graphic design 3. everyone one the team (8 other students) are also enrolled in social documentary photography. at the same time each student is taking graphic design 1,2, or 3 also. so its modge podge of graphic design levels.

we have spent the past 2 weeks designing a promotional piece for an organization called Chosen People of Guatemala. the organization itself works with the people that live in the Guatemala city dump. the promotional piece is to be used to help raise money for the organization.

the second half which is the reason i am going to guatemala is to take the images that will go in the chosen promotional piece. all the while i have to find a story and create a book. and finally the team will be split into two groups of four. from those two groups we will have to work on two separate projects.

i feel ill-prepared for what to expect since this is unlike any other missions trip i have been on or any trip in general. i am not going to directly but indirectly help these people. we are not building a house or running a vacation bible school. we are merely there to observe and put what we observe into an image. it will be weird since the camera will become a barrier to overcome and i am now just mentioning that i dont speak the language. so there is that barrier as well.

it will be a good trip. but it will also be hard work...very hard work. and i am looking to be stretched as a designer a photographer and a person.

-joel v. martinez
05.22.10