"My dad is a funny dad. Everytime I'm down he makes me laugh and everytime I need him, he is there ... He's got great stories, too, about when he was my age. He tells me about when he was growing up." -- Andre Ammons (below), 11

The faces of ohana

SELF-DISCOVERY really isn't complicated. It's all in the process of finding a voice, realizing that you do have something to say. Facilitating that process is often the hardest part.

Youth from Kuhio Park Terrace took that journey and learned some great skills as well, when professional photographers Laurie Breeden Callies and Lisa Uesugi decided that self esteem could be found behind the lens of a camera.

Working in partnership with Parents and Children Together, the women ran a 12-week project, providing the children with cameras as well as photography lessons. The students' assignment was to document their families and communty. Fourteen students, ranging in age from 10 to 16, participated.

The culmination of the project is "Doorways," an exhibit of the students' work, on display through Sept. 25 at The Shops at Dole Cannery, in the first floor lobby. The lobby is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

For the exhibit, each youth selected one shot of someone important in their lives. A portrait of each child (taken by either Callies or Uesugi) accompanies each work, along with short essays written by the students that talk about their subjects.

Some of the works display promising talent; all are laden with the emotional investment the children have in their subjects. The photographs prove that Callies and Uesugi were on the right track.

"My grandma Getta is like my second mom ... She is so special because I have a feeling in my heart that ... if she were gone, our family would be lost. When she is around, she brings spirit to any room." -- Georgette Liutolo-Lopes (below), 13