The North Dakota State University Memorial Union Art Gallery will feature Morea D. Steinhauer's master's thesis in photojournalism about Colombian refugees in Costa Rica from March 31 to April 17. The exhibit is titled "Through My Eyes, My Life in Costa Rica."
According to Steinhauer's book, "Through My Eyes, My Life in Costa Rica," the goal of her project was to analyze the impact of photojournalism as a research method. The project was sponsored by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Asociacion de Consultores y Asesores Internacionales (ACAI).
Seventeen Costa Rican Colombian refugees were selected randomly by ACAI to participate in a six-week workshop. Participants were taught basic concepts and principles of the design of photography, light, texture and movement. At the beginning of the workshop, each participant was provided with a digital camera and instructed to take photos of anything they liked as long as it revolved around three questions of the study: What is your life in Costa Rica like? What is good about your life? What should change?
Each participant also kept a journal during the project. Their reflections were later used as part of the photo descriptions presented in Steinhauer's book.
The exhibit contains 45 images and reflections there were self-selected by the participants to be shared with the Costa Rican community in the form of an exhibit to celebrate the 2009 International Refugee Day.