A trip to the United States in October allowed me to pick up a camera and lens for two recent microgrant recipients as well as other equipment for photographers in Medellín as part of the equipment delivery program.
Johana Guerrero Serrano, above, came by last weekend to pick up her recently funded microgrant camera, a Nikon d3100. With her boyfriend filming on his phone and her little sister at her side, Johana's happiness spilled over into tears and hugs, a reminder for me of how much the grants mean to those receiving them and a spur to look for ways to increase the program funding to expand it.
The trip also allowed me to pick up the Nikkor DX 55-200mm lens for microgrant 7 recipient Mónica Lorenza Taborda Gutiérrez and deliver that to her last weekend as well.
In addition to microgrants, fototazo also runs an equipment delivery program, organizing the delivery of equipment from the US for photographers in Colombia to give them access to US market prices as well as to equipment hard to obtain in Colombia. Under this program, photographers pay the full amount, but save on average 25-30% in comparison to Colombian prices. This trip was a small delivery, a replacement eyecup for the Nikon d5100 that was delivered to Aura Lambertinez in June of last year and two books for Edwin Ochoa, a copy of Photography Changes Everything by Marvin Heiferman and The Photograph as Conceptual Art by Charlotte Cotton.