Joy is a well-loved bicycle, a saved goal at soccer, a hug from a best friend.

More than 35 children from two orphanages in Mexico are sharing these and other visions of joy through photographs on display through July at Sybaris restaurant in downtown Albany.

The art show, "Visiones '09," is the effort of Kari Johnsen Gyde, a Colorado resident whose friendship with Johanna Omelia of Albany and with Matt and Janel Bennett of Sybaris helped bring the project to Albany.

The photos are for sale, with all proceeds going to the orphanages of the child photographers. Donations are tax-deductible.

Johnsen Gyde travels often to Monterrey, Mexico, through Back 2 Back, an American mission organization that provides care, housing and education to children in need.

Last year, she started looking for a way to continue the connection with the orphanages there. Having picked up photography as a hobby herself, she decided to provide the children with disposable cameras to have them capture slices of their own lives to share.

"I've always felt guilty just leaving, because we always go back to our lifestyles and people just forget," Johnsen Gyde said. "We wanted to find a way to continue to give back."

Johnsen Gyde took 120 cameras to two Monterrey orphanages and distributed them to children ages 7 to 15. The assignment: Photograph something that represents "joy."

The photographs chosen for the show are, for the most part, of simple things, Johnsen Gyde noted: lunch. A goofy friend posing with a mop on her head. A school bus, which replaced an old van the orphanage uses for transportation.

"So many things we take for granted without taking a thought," she said. "The pictures gave me goosebumps, because of the emotions behind them.

"Really, it's the same as us," she went on. "It's people. It's just being loved, and actually thinking like they matter, that they count, that they haven't been forgotten."

From Albany, the photography show will travel to Colorado, then Ohio and Canada. Albany residents are welcome to visit Sybaris just to see the show and read the cards about each young photographer, said Omelia, who worked with Johnsen Gyde to kick off the project.

The idea is to share with the viewers a look into the lives of children elsewhere, to spark interest in connecting with the orphanages, and, for Johnson Gyde, to give back a little of the joy she has received from working with the children there.

"All these kids are sharing so much joy, just from the exercise of taking pictures and sharing that with America," she said.