The Inner Path of Photography

"Bicycle Rider" by Jasmine, Kennedy Place Houston

This June and July, I had the pleasure of teaching my 6-week class “You are the Artist of Your Life: Exploring Life Direction Through Photography” to a group of teens age 10-17 from Kennedy Place, Houston, Texas.

The class is designed to expose teens to the art of photography, as well as introduce tools to look at their lives and futures. Each week this summer teens learned about the roots of photography and looked at a diversity of  other photographers’ work, shot how they felt and saw their world, and reflected, wrote, and began creating visions and dreams for their own lives.

The photograph above is one of the fine images that came from these creative young photographers, and is the first of images in a short slideshow which reflects the highlights of their work.

A framed collage of images also hangs in the Kennedy Place Community Center.

“You are the Artist of Your Life: Exploring Life Direction Through Photography – Teens” was sponsored by Houston Housing Resources, Inc. through a grant from the Simmons Foundation, and by contributions from Taos Mountain Radiology (Paul Johnson, MD) and Christina M. Gucwa, Attorney at Law.

Many thanks  for the opportunity to inspire and support these creative, passionate teens!

A special thanks to Amy Goldstein (HHR) who conceived of the “Black Frame Project” of which this program was a part.  The “Black Frame Project” invites and supports artists to teach in the communities, recognizing the potential of arts to inspire, uplift, and create positive change.

See a full description of “You are the Artist of Your Life:  Exploring Life Direction Through Photography” here.

See the slide show on Vimeo here.