Microsoft Icon of Imaging Phil Borges helps youth create "Bridges to Understanding" through digital storytelling.

Story and photos by Gary Voth
Seattle, Washington, Monday, April 14, 2008

"Ladies and gentlemen, presenting His Holiness, the fourteenth Dalai Lama!" A deafening cheer erupted from the capacity crowd in Seattle's Key Arena as thousands of people rose to their feet to see one of the world's most celebrated spiritual leaders.

"That's it, that's the shot!" Internationally acclaimed humanitarian photographer Phil Borges guided 16-year-old Werner Monterroso, a student from Guatemala City, Guatemala, as he photographed the activities side by side with dozens of seasoned news photographers. For Monterroso, the opportunity was no doubt awe-inspiring, but he displayed nothing but cool as he tracked his camera over the sea of smiling faces. Nearby, Phuthikhaya, a 17-year old student from Hector Peterson School outside Cape Town, South Africa, listened intently via headphones to the microphone feed from his digital audio recorder. Known as "PK" to his friends, Phuthikhaya was recording sound for the eventual multimedia story they would produce together, along with Tenzin Lhamo, 13, from the Tibetan Children's Village in India.

All three had come to document and take part in Seeds of Compassion, an extraordinary five-day event in Seattle that focused on creating compassion in society and that featured the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The students are participants in the Face to Face cultural exchange program sponsored by Bridges to Understanding, a not-for-profit organization that Borges founded in 2001 to enable indigenous children from around the world to connect with children in developed countries through the use of digital photography and multimedia. Through Face to Face, students from other countries are invited to spend time with students from Bridges' partner schools in Seattle's Puget Sound region.

For Phil Borges, helping these young people photograph and record the Dalai Lama's visit to Seattle was a culmination of his vision for Bridges, which was sparked after the completion of his 1996 book, Tibetan Portrait: The Power of Compassion. One of Borges most iconic images from this work is a portrait of the Dalai Lama that was made in his home-in-exile in Dharamsala, India. In the striking image, a slightly younger Dalai Lama gazes into the camera with the same wistful half-smile and deeply knowing expression that remind some observers of another iconic image, that of Leonardo's Mona Lisa.

"Having these international students here for this historic Seeds of Compassion conference is like a dream come true. It doesn't get any better than this for those of us involved in building empathy and understanding across cultures in our youth," says Borges. Bridges is an "on-line classroom" connecting students from indigenous cultures with students in the developed world. Central to the program is what Borges calls "interactive photographic storytelling" created by the students and mentored by professionals. In the Bridges virtual classroom, students from a school in, say, Cusco, Peru, share their stories directly with students in Seattle via online multimedia technology.

This month, students from South Africa, India, and Guatemala visited Seattle for up to three weeks to learn from each other and share and create stories using the latest digital software and technologies provided by Bridges' sponsors, including Microsoft. Borges believes the program not only "leads the students to a deeper understanding of their own culture and the culture of others," but to "an understanding of how cultural customs and beliefs impact the environment."

It was no accident that the Bridges students were invited to document the heavily secured visit of the Dalai Lama. The Bridges organization was featured in the Seeds of Compassion "Youth Day" schedule, and Borges himself was the main draw for a concert and lecture scheduled later that evening in Seattle's McCaw Hall, where he presented not only his own work, but a multimedia story created by 19-year old Bridges student Caroline Dyantyi on the wrenching effects of teen pregnancy among students in her native country of South Africa. Also featured was Bridges student Jessica Markowitz of the Seattle Girls' School who, at just age 12, is the founder of "Richard's Rwanda," a group of students raising money to support the building of a school for girls in that war-ravaged nation.

Before the lecture, Borges had to help his digital storytelling team pull together the photographs and audio from the morning's event. After the Dalai Lama's address finished, Monterroso, PK, and Lhamo retreated to a classroom in Seattle's Center School, where they began downloading images and audio to their Windows-based laptop computers. Borges was joined by other Bridges mentors, including news editor Galen Motin Goff and photographer Nancy McGirr, founder of Fotokids: Fundacion de Niños Artistas in Guatemala.

Later, during his evening talk at McCaw Hall, Borges recounted how he was first inspired to tell compassionate stories through his gift for photography, relating delightful anecdotes from his travels among indigenous cultures. For example, when he first photographed the Dalai Lama as a relatively less well-known photographer in 1996, "the Dalai Lama could tell I was nervous," he said. "As I held out my hand to shake his, he suddenly reached out and tickled me in the ribs instead. It was the perfect way to break the ice and put us both at ease!"

The latest example of Borges' compassionate storytelling is his compelling digital project and book, Women Empowered: Inspiring Change in the Emerging World. "During my travels in the developing world, I have been continually shocked by the degree of gender discrimination in the communities I visit," says Borges. This led him to connect with CARE. Over a period of two-and-a-half years, Borges visited dozens of CARE projects that empower women in Africa, Asia, and South America. The Women Empowered project focuses on the stories of 25 of these women who have "broken through barriers of convention and oppression" and whose "bravery and determination speak to the universal themes of courage, empowerment, and human rights," says Borges.

But for now, in the Center School classroom, there was a palpable sense of excitement as the Bridges students, none of whom had ever traveled outside their home countries or even, for most, their home villages, began to review their images and recorded audio of the Dalai Lama's appearance and think about how they could be combined to tell a story made uniquely possible through digital technology.

Borges had clearly made a connection with these students. Reviewing images side by side with McGirr and 17-year old Monterroso, Borges smiled his trademark smile and once again exclaimed, "Oh, that's a great shot!" It's a "bridge to understanding" that he is only too happy to provide.

 

All images are copyright © 2008 Gary R. Voth. All rights reserved.

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