by to bother wasting their time with. Because I allotted Katiana the time and treated her as equal to the other children, I realized she had an amazing fascination with photography, often taking my camera and snapping hundreds of photos.
In turn, I made a promise to find a way to send Katiana a camera of her own, because as I have experienced with Katiana and other disabled children, when you actually take the time to interact with them and figure out what interests them and what can make them feel special and unique, it is then when they begin to gain a self confidence, motivation and pride that they are able to do something or have something that no one else can. If Stevie Wonder can play the piano blind, then I have every faith in the world that Katiana could be the next Annie Leibowitz.
Now it wouldn’t be a fashion blog if there wasn’t a little fashion involved, and to tell you the truth, this incidence happened completely unintentionally. One day I was carrying my bag around and inside I had a copy of Vogue and W magazine. Katiana opened my bag to see the magazines and before I knew it, all the children from the village had gathered in completely and utter awe catching glimpses of Elizabeth Hurley seductively holding a Dior bag and Karlie Kloss bending in fascinating positions in balloon pants. (see above image). It was as if I had opened Pandora’s box. The children couldn’t keep their eyes off the magazine pages and I eventually had to succumb to discarding my reading material because I don’t believe I had ever seen such excitement in any children’s eyes before.
*Side note to Ms. Wintour: Perhaps there is indeed a market for Vogue Haiti…
There is an old saying that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Artist Celeur Jean Herard took that expression to heart. Herard will have his own separate blog because his artwork is truly too compelling to only show one piece, but in summary, Herard has made a living off of creating sculptures from garbage and rubble he finds through his scavenging. And yes, the skull above is real, and one of many disturbing yet fascinating ways Herard has taken what would otherwise be garbage and turned it into art.
