Look at the Team’s pictures and you see the kids themselves: curious, footloose, interested especially in the street people of the world. Bingwa’s idea is to get the kids to go outside of themselves with the aid of photography. He wants them to shoot their own community—seeing Venice through the fresh eyes of a camera. And he wants them to sell their pictures so that they can earn enough money to go somewhere else and shoot.

“The images of where we’ve been help us get where we want to go,” says ten-year-old Te’Amir. Asked her technique, nine-year-old Veronica said, “I guess I shoot it if I like it.”

Justin, at 14 a five-year Team veteran, likes candid shots of people and architecture. “We were on the subway in New York,” he recalls, “and there was this couple that started kissing. They got mad when I took their picture. And Bingwa told me, ‘You’ve got to ask before you shoot.’”

Bingwa stresses the Team approach always. “We must travel in a pack,” he says. “I have to keep an eye on everybody. That may hinder creativity, but I don’t see it happening. They help each other, like one holding an umbrella while another makes a shoot. They are always aware of each other.”

What Makes A Picture