Slow Photography

"How to show the picture?” she asked.   I pointed at the play button on the back of the camera. At 15, she was living in a home for orphaned kids on a Caribbean island. She quickly found the button, played back the video she'd taken of her housemates singing a popular song, and they looked on. Dressed in white t-shirts and blue shorts, the 12 kids from the Children's Home made a goodbye video for the friends that were leaving the island; a volunteer American couple who got close with the kids over several years of working at the home.  These kids were curious, and the small camera was twisted, grabbed but not dropped. The youngest was an intense three-year-old who snapped image after image while talking non-stop about what he saw: the sky, the church, the grass, the pavement. Selfies were also a popular subject matter.  These children are Black, from the Haiti and the Caribbean. I am white and about four times their age. Living in a home, coming from difficult