Camp Shane: Overweight Summer Camp

EVERY DAY PHOTOGRAPHERS AROUND THE WORLD looking for new ways to tell stories or to capture what we previously did not notice. We choose interesting photo projects and ask their authors what they wanted to say. This week we are publishing the project "Camp Shane" by American Lauren Fleischman. In this series, she talks about the life of the eponymous camp for overweight people, which is visited annually by 800 children. Camp Shane is located in the Catskills, a popular New Yorker holiday destination. As a teenager, Fleischman herself spent several seasons in the camp, and now works there as an advisor.

I began to study photography when I was fifteen, since then it has been my main passion in life. In those days, the teachers were much more conservative, so I met the works of the same Nan Goldin much later. I believe that her photographs made the photo public and popular.

I invented and shot the project "Camp Shane" in order to reflect on one of the most difficult experiences of my childhood - life in a camp for overweight people. These photos became the basis of my work and allowed me to understand how I want to shoot and what stories to tell. This project also showed me the full power of photography, which makes it possible not only to communicate, but also to unite efforts and share experiences.

As a former camper visitor, I decided that I could show local life from a new perspective. Working on the project, I felt like a member of the local community - I lived there during the filming. We ate, laughed and trained - in general, we did everything together 24 hours a day, for 9 weeks in a row. We became attached to each other and became a real team. The project "Camp Shane" opens an interview with one of the girls, who spent several summer seasons in the camp. For the first time her monologue and photo in a bathing suit were published in The New York Times, here are her words:

“On the first day in the camp, you must take your photo before. Then they will take a photo after that. This is my third summer here, but I still feel shy. You will be told how to pose. No one here is happy with the way he looks in a bathing suit. We are all here for one reason - to lose weight and go back to friends.

There, at home, one boy came up with a nickname for me - a tomato - because I am short and really round. I was offended, but I did not show it. I knew that it was complete, and if I looked at myself in the mirror, I would definitely be upset. As a child, I wore the 14th size of clothes that flowed into the 11th as a teenager - for me it was a shock. Parents tried to help and put me on a diet, but it seems they were shy about how ridiculous I look, even more than I do.

It is better for me to be here in the camp. Everything here is good and no one laughs at me. This summer, the doctor set me a goal to lose only 4.5 kilograms, and I have already reached it. I am feeling better. All the time I run to look in the mirror.

Parents have my photos before and after. When I return home, they say - look how thin and how full you were, and I think - well, now I’ll think that I look good just because I lost weight. My sister will run and paste her photo „after“ on the fridge. Dad will attach my picture next, but I'll take it off. I think everyone who has passed this camp perceives the result differently. I do not want to believe that now I look good, because I have lost weight. I just want to consider myself beautiful. Just know it and everything. "