New view of tragedy

By Tania Martin
HILLS snapper Sue Clisby has been working to help create new memories for youths devastated by the Black Saturday fires.
Following that fateful day, The Patch photographer felt a need to help.
She came up with an idea to work with children in schools affected by the fires.
But authorities said it was too soon for the students.
After several months and many grant applications, Ms Clisby finally put her idea into practice in June.
The plan was to go into the schools and teach the students photography.
Ms Clisby said it was a great way to create new memories.
But she said it was not focussed on the fires.
The photographer has spent the past six months working with budding snappers from Alexandra, Flowerdale and Toolangi primary schools and year nine students from Yea High School.
Ms Clisby said the project was made possible with the help of a $2000 grant from Arts Victoria, $1000 from Monbulk Rotary Club and donations from Fuji film and Belgrave Images.
Ms Clisby felt a real apathy with the fire victims as a Dandenong Ranges resident who lives under the same threat every summer.
She believed learning a new art form would be a great form of recovery from the devastation facing most of the kids.
“It serves as a distraction and gives them a chance to express themselves creatively,” she said.
Ms Clisby also encouraged artist and sculptor Lucy Irvine to join the initiative.
Armed with donated disposable cameras and books that explored the concept of images, Ms Clisby set out to arm the students with a few tips on composition.
“They came out with some of the freshest shots,” she said.
Ms Clisby held six workshops at each school. She said the students had to choose a photograph they had taken and put it in a collage with a poem and also put together a memory book.
For most it was a chance to start from scratch following the fires.
“Only 30 per cent of students did something on the fires – most concentrated on family, friends and pets,” Ms Clisby said.
The students’ work will now go on show on Saturday and Sunday at the Good Shed Gallery, Station Street, Yea.
The show will run from 10am to 4pm over the weekend.