Down syndrome girl shows her father her view of life through an emotional photo project

One subject, but quite different photographic views of the world – an amateur photographer from the south of Poland and his daughter with Down syndrome together in a project, which teaches the father a fresh look at the world, and gives nearly 18-year-old Kaja a boost of confidence.

All their pictures have been published on the internet. Why?

I do not want to explain anything to anyone or talk about the respect due to people with Down syndrome, but I had this idea to show what they can do – explains Sebastian Łuczywo.

Sebastian Łuczywo about his photography says: “I want to do photos to evoke emotion.” This time, he evokes them with a new project, the “world view confrontation”. Everything began with the images that Kaja, daughter of Sebastian, brought from a school trip.

She took a camera with her, and I was convinced that she would bring back hundreds of photos. I was surprised because she took only five. I was surprised by the respect, with which she approached photography – says Łuczywo.

And he adds that the pictures taken by his daughter reminded him what a great power the simplicity of a message might have, which is often underestimated.

Łuczywo has never taught Kaja about photography. Just like many other people she took a camera on a trip she went. But it was precisely this excursion and the five pictures which inspired him to carry out the experiment.

For Kaja it was an adventure and fun, and for me a learning experience. My daughter gave me the new fresh perspective I needed.

I do not want to explain, just show

They were looking everywhere for shooting locations. That’s because the father wanted to see how his daughter looks at the world through the camera lens, not only in a city but also in the woods, in the mountains, by the morning or the setting sun. The rules? The same settings in the camera. The first picture was always taken by Kaja. The effect? Five photographic sessions in four months.

Among the pictures published on the internet you can see snowy landscapes, portraits of people and animals. As Sebastian Łuczywo says, he wanted to show that people with Down syndrome are no worse than others.

They are sometimes treated as a subspecies and various insults are directed at them. I do not want to explain anything to anyone or talk about the respect due to these people, but I had this idea to show what they can do – explains the photographer. And he adds – I wanted to raise the value of people with Down syndrome. For us, the parents of children with Down syndrome, it is most important that they are treated in the same way as any other children. Kaja has two brothers, but she gets no favours – Sebastian told us.

A unique view

This year Kaja turns 18 years old. Her father decided that this would be the year of his daughter.

If she can enter adulthood with the confidence that she is gaining now, nothing more would be needed. Awareness of success is already great. Kaja is very fond of photography, and I know that she has an extraordinary gift of perspective – says the proud father.

His daughter is also the heroine of the project “I also can”, which shows that people with Down syndrome can do usual things in an unusual way. So far two episodes have appeared, one featuring Kaja skiing. They are also planning another photography project together.

Kaja is a restless girl with many hobbies.

When she’s not singing or dancing, she runs notebooks where she writes stories and draws. She also swims. She’s always busy doing something. She can’t be bored. And I admit, I don’t know another such ambitious person – Sebastian, very proud, told Expatriate.pl.

He and Kaja have already been on Polish TV, and featured by Bored Panda. You can watch an interview with both photographers around 3pm today on TVN24 (in Polish unfortunately).

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