"My World" is an international project committed to raising awareness of the lives of children from around the globe through the medium of education and photography. By donating cameras to the children themselves, "My World" gives these children a voice and allows others to view the world from their perspective. Our ongoing project reflects the society they are from through the creation of the childrens' personal visual narratives of their day-to-day life experiences.
We hold workshops in which we observe and question photos taken by young people from other countries, teach basic camera skills and give all participants a platform to visually express themselves and tell their own personal story. Each project results in an exhibition of their work for the local community.

This projects reserves the typical role of young people learners, putting them in the position of teaching others, thus resulting in a greater sense of self worth. It builds confidence, self esteem and encourages creativity, giving them a sense of importance.
Galleries and schools worldwide have been a great support to us, exhibiting the children's photographs and personal stories. These visual stories are used to connect the lives of people worldwide, leading to a deeper understanding of each other. The exhibitions intend to break down language barriers and we hope to demonstrate this as photography provides a common, international language, immediately understandable to all. This enables quick, easy and rich cultural exchanges to develop.
The more countries we work in, the richer the cultural exchange will be and in turn more productive for all. Therefore the final aim of "My World" is to increase the amount of countries we work in, giving insight and information predominantly inaccessible to others, thus raising awareness of different situations people live in around the globe.

Felicity Jones

Felicity Jones, a graduate from the London College of Printing, is an award winning photographer whose work centres on the concept of identity and alternative culture in London. She has a huge passion for cultural diversity and her extensive travels around Europe, Asia, Africa coupled with four of her teenage years being spent living in the Middle East, have fuelled her passion. She won an award in her final year at the LCP to set up photography workshops with diverse young people and begun the "My World" project.

Felicity has continued running her project and has also been involved with numerous creative youth projects which include short films, documentaries and music albums. She has also worked with Special needs children facilitating art and helping to make toys and games catering to individual needs and abilities. London based art collective 'Random Artists' also gave her a platform for her work, which has been exhibited in various derelict spaces around the UK during exciting multimedia art events, displaying recycled sculptures with the theme 'nature vs. technology'.

Felicity recently returned from Africa where she ran the "My World" project with Nicola Griffiths.
While away they worked with different Tribes, Refugees and street kids. Currently Felicity's creative endeavours have lead her to Blacksmithing and metal work as a chosen medium, and she is currently studying this in Herefordshire.

Nicola Griffiths

Nicola Griffiths was born in Amsterdam, Holland in 1980 by British parents. The family moved to Florence, Italy in 1987 where Nicola completed her higher education in 1999, specialising in foreign languages. She then travelled extensively around Europe for the next two years. These were extremely formative years in her life as they piqued her curiosity for the world around her and cemented her love for travel.

She returned to Italy in 2001 and in 2005 was awarded a first class degree in Sociology from the University of Bologna. It was here that she started getting close to Visual Research, and was especially interested in how film and photography could be of importance for understanding and interpreting the world and different cultures surrounding us. Her chosen research area was Social-Anthropology and her thesis consisted in an in depth analysis of "Ayurveda" (the Indian Science of Life) supported by participant observation in various institutions in both India and Italy and by visual means, in this case the use of photography.
After her graduation she moved to London and continued her education and research within the field of Visual Studies, attending courses in Documentary Making, Video Editing and Live Sociology and working on various projects within different production companies (Agile Films, Class Films, Hekate Films and Films of Record). She also started working as a play-worker for kids with special needs and disabilities.
She joined the MyWorld project in 2007, as it was the perfect opportunity to tie together many of her interests: travel, youth work and visual research. She participated in the Africa Tour in 2008, travelling around 5 different countries and working on 7 different photography projects with youth from a variety of different backgrounds.

She is currently fully involved in the project and together with Felicity Jones, hoping to take it abroad again in 2010. She also continues her job with special needs children. Nicola is currently living and working in London.