Editing...

Photo by Sami

This week will be our last full class and it is mainly going to be about editing and writing captions. The captions for the photos are not going to be the typical journalist captions that I am used to. Many of them read like artist statements. Declaring a very strong point of view on a certain subject. They have not been completely ironed out as of last class. 

 Photo by William

We are working on getting more out of a few of the students who need a little challenging or pushing in their thought processes. One student's current captions were very general and myself and Sarah both felt this student could use a push to see what else they are thinking when they are looking back on their work from the past six weeks.

For the editing processes, I selected five images I thought were the students strongest, then we open that up to them and allow them to choose their favorites. Most of what I picked was not what they picked. 

What I loved was the conversation about why they liked one image over another. Most of the comments are about their personal connection to the photo, something we try to dismiss in journalism. It was a refreshing to look at work and be able to see photographers really express themselves.

Photo by Hallie

I hope this Thursday is just as mind blowing.

Oh and if you are wondering why some of the images have time stamps on them... those students thought it was cool to have that on their photos.

PhotoVoice Class Two...

Brother and sister Hallie(left) and William

Thursday night was class two for the 2014 PhotoVoice Class. We talked about the students weeks, looked over some of their work. We had a few technical difficulties in getting all of their work downloaded, but next week those problems should be taken care of.  The lecture I gave on photography this week went well, using their work as examples of good photos helped keep them excited during the class.

Photo by William

The photo above was turned in by one of my students William for the Basic Needs assignment, when he discussed it in class he spoke of happiness, in the photo are Williams friends and neighbors. The discussion of basic needs brought up many topics and one that seemed to be present in a lot of the images was friends and family. As a kid your friends and family are your entire world so that was no surprise. I am curious to see where these assignments will lead and what the students choose to place in their viewfinders. 

For the up coming week we will view more of the students work and I am planning a photo scavenger hunt around the CMCA building Thursday afternoon. Should be a good way of keeping my students engaged with the class and help them build on their photo skills, allowing them to ask me some photo questions in real time instead of having to wait a week between classes.

Helping find a PhotoVoice...

On Thursday night, I started working with Central Missouri Community Action. For the next eight weeks, I will be teaching photography to a group of kids. I have worked with the shoot-back concept before in Guatemala with a nonprofit organization, Voces De Cambio, and loved it. I've been looking for an opportunity to teach here in Missouri. While I was talking with my professor at the end of last semester, she informed me about the PhotoVoice program here in town. It's a two-fold win for me. One, I get to hand out and teach photography to kids that might not have the opportunity to learn this craft if it wasn't for this program. Plus, I get a course credit out of the way.

Thursday's class started off a bit rocky. Most classes the students were pretty quiet. (Well, with the exception of two students who were already friends.) Once we checked out cameras to the students, they ran around the room visually exploring the place.  This class feels like it is going to be a lot of fun.

The first assignment is Basic Needs, when Sarah (the other instructor) and I went around the room asking what the kids thought were their basic needs they shouted out suggestions "Bacon! Water! a House!" Then one of the more shy students quietly said "Family." I was honestly struck by that answer. I don't think I would have thought about that at his age.

I'm positive that this class will produce some insightful photographs. Perhaps when we have our gallery show, the community will have something productive to talk about.