Classroom Discussion Guide:

For Junior High and High–school Students

A project of

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 The House is Small but the Welcome is Big
Classroom Discussion Guide

Introduction

The House is Small is but the Welcome is Big is a participant-created documentary

photo project exploring the intersection between significant public health issues and
poverty. A Social Art Initiative of Venice Arts, program staff worked with South African
mothers and pregnant women living with HIV and Mozambican youth orphaned by AIDS
teaching them how to use photography to document their lives and communities. The
resulting photographs are visually compelling and powerful narratives on the
participantsʼ resiliency, joy, and hope. The House is Small puts real faces to the
continuing global AIDS crisis and its impact on women and children in Southern Africa.
According to United Nation estimates, over 3 million South African women are living with
HIV and over 500, 000 children in Mozambique are orphaned by AIDS. The participantsʼ
images are an illustration of their ability to live positively despite a myriad of social,
economic, and political challenges affecting their health and well–being.

Discussion Guide

This guide provides teachers with questions to engage students and frame discussions
on the images in The House is Small, as well as themes and issues relevant to the
projectʼs participants. The questions are divided into subgroups and not meant to be
exhaustive. Teachers are encouraged to build upon the questions as necessary to
engage students and to help them critically analyze the project.

A. Participant-produced photography

1. The photographs in The House is Small are taken by the projectʼs

participants and document their lives and communities. What is your
response to the photographs knowing that they were taken by taken by
community members and not by documentary or professional
photographers?

2. What do you think are some of the positive and negative aspects of having
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© Venice Arts. May be used and distributed only with attribution. Thank you.
 The House is Small but the Welcome is Big
Classroom Discussion Guide

people learn photography to document their own lives rather than having a
documentary photographer take photographs of them?

B. Visual Storytelling

1. Pick one or two of the most compelling images to you. What are some
photographic or artistic techniques (composition, use of light, depth of field,
perspective, etc.) that are used in the images? How do they work in helping
to tell the photographerʼs story?

2. Many of the photographs are environmental portraits of the women and kids,
that is, they are photos of people within their own environment. How does
this work in terms of telling their stories? Pick one environmental portrait and
discuss what you see as that person/group's story.

3. Do these images inspire you in telling your own story? If you could tell your
own story through photographs, what would you shoot? How would you
construct the image (i.e. what would you include in the frame, what type of
lighting would you use, who would be included in the frame, where would you
shoot, would it be color or B&W, etc.)?

C. Photograph Subjects

1. Compare and contrast the subjects of the women and childrenʼs

photography. How are they similar? How are they different?

2. What do the photographsʼ subjects tell you about the photographers?

3. The photograph “Family” is a family portrait of Irenio and Saquinaʼs family.

Jeremias, the photographer, says the photograph is of a “family that misses
their parents.” Do you think this sentiment comes across in other photos by
and about Irenio and Saquinaʼs family? Explain your answer.

4. View the childrenʼs photography and read their bios. How are their lives
similar to yours? How are they different?

D. Photographic Empowerment and HIV

1. What has the project taught you about HIV in Africa?

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© Venice Arts. May be used and distributed only with attribution. Thank you.
 The House is Small but the Welcome is Big
Classroom Discussion Guide

2. How do the images in The House is Small compare to other images you have
seen about HIV in Africa?

3. How can the photographs be used to address social change and raise
awareness about the impact of HIV/AIDS on African women and children?

Resources

Venice Arts is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Participant-produced Photography projects

• PhotoVoice UK: www.PhotoVoice.org

• Photovoice US: www.photovoice.com

• Through the Eyes of Children: The Rwanda Project: www.rwandaproject.org

• Kids with Cameras: www.kids-with-cameras.org

• AjA Project: www.ajaproject.org

HIV in Africa

• UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS): www.unaids.org

• UNICEF (United Nations Childrenʼs Fund): www.unicef.org/aids

• WHO (World Health Organization): www.who.int/hiv/eb/index.html

• Global Health Council: www.globalhealth.org

• International AIDS Alliance: http://www.aidsalliance.org

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© Venice Arts. May be used and distributed only with attribution. Thank you.