What is the power of photography? What is the gift of seeing through new eyes?

In January of this year our band of seven photographer-teachers traveled to the community of Altos de la Florida, Colombia, to teach photography to young people who are living as refugees in their own country.

This community of 3,000, located outside Bogotá, is a collection of hand-made homes spread across the hills and patched together with found timbers and tin. Most lack sanitation or heat. Water is delivered monthly by truck. Wallpaper, meant to keep out wind and dust, is made of foil wrappers saved from cookie boxes and butter.

Families have come here to escape the violence of drugs and the plague of a 30-year civil war