Eager to spread their wares, the kids head out of the Team’s basement studio/darkroom on the Venice boardwalk. The pictures hang on racks for passersby to see—and the kids make sure they see them. Team members patrol the boardwalk, attracting strollers (and sometimes picking up extra money by selling homemade gingerbread or ice cream made on a donated ice-cream making machine).

People from Venice buy the photos, which show their community in ways they have never seen before: the familiar transformed into the exotic by light and shadow. Venice kids—“Look, there’s my cousin!”—especially like looking at the Team’s pictures. And the tourists buy, taking back a piece of Venice that is more than a postcard.

The kids have made the Venice Dream Team a local brand name on the boardwalk. As the kids talk up a sale ($20 or $30 a print), Bingwa is usually hovering nearby, saying, “I want to hear ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’.”

On their travels, they also sell their prints if they get a chance. On one day in New York they made $1,000. Exhibits also are usually on the program on overseas trips.

Recently they enhanced their marketing by using donated computers. Volunteers teach the kids to use the computers and help them produce the Venice Dream Team Web site. Advertising through email and using on-line auctions, they have sent their pictures into a new dimension.

Learning The Craft