What is Photography to you?

The first class, has 16 students.
I decided to start with the simple question :
"What do you click a photograph for?"

Various answers were given :
"If I see something I like, I would want to take a picture"
"If something looks pretty, we may want to see it again"
"If I am with my friends, I will want to take a picture"

This ofcourse, being the first question I asked, was answered with apprehension, because the children are so used the giving "right" or "wrong" answers. I realized this when I asked Prajyot to answer the question - he said "What they are saying is the correct answer I think."

This was an important moment for me, because, I think I had forgotten all the unlearning I had to do in Srishti. And I have to give these kids time to unlearn some stuff too. So, this being said, we had a discussion about how nothing is right or wrong, and everything must be explored in photography and the beauty is no one is ever wrong! This seemed to get them a little less nervous.

I had a 20 minute discussion with the kids about what photography is used for around the world. First I asked them to help me list this stuff :

People
Animals
Colors
Buildings
Birds
flowers
Nature
Family
Picnics
Traveling
Friends
Cars
Trees

So Photography, according to them must always have a subject - a physical identifiable subject (The only exception and abstract one being color).. No emotions were expressed. I did try and probe and ask - But why would you click something?

It seems, as though, emotions are not something they identify with photography immediately. Emotions are derived from a photograph or through the subject in the photograph. But I view photography differently - I never think of subjects first, I think of what emotion I am trying to evoke, what story am I trying to tell. And I think thats what we do, once we've gone past the stage of clicking away on a new camera. What are we trying to say / show / depict / evoke?

Taking advantage of the fact, that none of the kids really mentioned it, I brought it up.
So what do you feel, when you see a picture ? I asked.

Then the answers came in - Happiness or Sadness.

Kids are simple, they see thing in black and white most of the time.
So with some pictures they said they felt happy and with some they felt sad.

At this point I said, why does a photographer click a picture of something that will make you sad?
No answers! I had 16 blank faces and they had to be introduced to the idea of clicking pictures, to share information, to let other people experience what they see. This is when one of them said - "Yes, like for the Newspaper?"

Hence, with this discussion, I covered very basic ideas of what photography can be used for and why.
The key is to not get over complicated at first. I have kids in the class ranging from age 11 - 15 and one girl who is 23.