PICTURE THIS Projects

Photo Show & Tell was a hit

Photo Show & Tell at the Chicago Photography Center on Saturday night, March 15 was a big hit.  Such a big hit that PTP and CPC is talking about doing another one in June and starting a Facebook group. Stay tuned.

A guy named Gil showed a picture of a girl named Turtle.

David and Laurie ShoulterKarall passed around the photo that brought the FBI to their door.

Kari McLean showed photos of the young ducks she was a foster mom for.

Sade LeFlore brought her mom and showed images which could have been titled Life's Details.

Lisa Clay came with her friend Eva and showed images she fancied from her Ecuador take.

Vlatko, who recently quit smoking, showed pics of smokers he has stalked.

Wednesday Journal's Josh Hawkins showed select images from a personal project he's working on about a woman fighting cancer.

Aurora Beacon News' Heather Eidson showed some very amusing images resulting from picture hunting for her paper.

The silhouette portraits from one of the recent projects with Open Door Shelter kids were shown.

I showed some unusual images of my family.

Long-time friend of PTP Mitch Cerrone came, as did others connected with Open Door Shelter, CPC and others.

Tip of the hat to CPC board member Betsy Lent and her buds at CPC for the yummy snacks and co-hosting the event with PTP.  Big thanks to PTP's anonymous friend who loaned us the digital projector.

Never been to a Photo Show & Tell?
Consider coming to the next one. Anyone with a passion for photography, a picture to share and a story to tell about it is invited--students, teachers, established photographers, emerging photographers, advertising and editorial photographers, my mom, your mom.  Key is to bring a few images that you fancy that have a story behind them. The event is about sharing entertaining pictures and stories. We've shown prints and digital slides.

This Photo Show & Tell was only the second PTP has done. The first was done at Columbia College in cooperation with the Columbia Chronicle, the Museum of Contemporary Photography and the Illinois Press Photographers Association.  Students, professors, freelancers, some PTP kids, a stock photo agent, an ad agency art buyer, a broadcaster and my mom participated.  I was the primary organizer. Missing shooting and editing, I was jonesing for photos and talking about photos.

To keep learn when the next Photo Show & Tell will be, to help execute it or to be in touch with PICTURE THIS Projects happenings, make yourself a member of PTP's Facebook group or contact me at [email protected].

~ Karen Kring

Tucson kids go public with personal stories

Their pink and white exterior gleamed at me like jewels. I put one in my mouth. Instant gratification. Ecstasy flowed over my skin.

So starts one of the stories from this summer's 110 Degrees: Tucson's Youth Tell Tucson's Stories. Kids*, ages 14-21 years old, offer untold stories, through words and pictures, about themselves and a variety of other people from their communities in Issue 7 published June 1, 2007 online and in the Arizona Daily Star.

Written in the first person, story themes and topics include immigration, the war in Iraq, divorce, brotherhood, motherhood, self-esteem, depression, phobias, drugs, sexual harassment, sexual assault, feminism, racism, ageism, trains and often school, religion, family, health and politics.

Liberian refugee Hawa Bealue compares her school in Nigeria to Catalina Magnet High School, her school in Tucson, and shares her dream of being a doctor.

Reyes Suarez writes about his grandfather and what he's learned from him. "My grandfather...has taught me to work hard, to stay true to my responsibilities, to do more than what's asked, and to be involved in the community."

To tell these stories, youth are coached in research, interviewing, writing and photography by professional writers and photographers through Voices: Community Stories Past and Present Inc., a Tucson-based nonprofit that works to document community stories and inspire individuals to explore their own stories and their connections to their communities.  Voices staff believe this is important, that through this storytelling "they can strengthen their cognitive, artistic, emotional, leadership, and higher education skills. Youth who are creative, resilient, educated and active citizens are youth who benefit themselves, their families and our community now and in the future."

Many of the stories are not easy to read -- or create.

"This year, I tried to tiptoe around my personal life, but I ended up doing a project just as intense as the story I published last year. I couldn't escape doing this...," wrote Isabella Soto in her comments that accompany her story "The Inconvenient Gender".

Other stories on Voice's website include "Casting a Vote is Empowering" by Nneka Okonkwo, an editorial about racism, ageism and the power of the vote and "Supporting my Brother" by Dillon Bouma, a piece about the war in Iraq and his brother's service in Bagdad.

"By being abstinent, I’m protecting my heart from breaking," writes Hannah Waddell in "Abstinence is Respect for Yourself," an editorial about her reaction to her parent's divorce and self-esteem originally published in the Arizona Daily Star in January.

All the stories in 110 Degrees can be read online on the Arizona Daily Star's website. Hard copies of this year's issue can be gotten at Voices' offices at 48 E. Pennington St. in Tucson.  Some back issues can be ordered on Voices' website.

* I use the word "kids" in this story deliberately, knowing some kids will not appreciate that term and some journalism professors surely will say it is slang or too informal. One kid I'd worked with through PICTURE THIS Projects told me calling him a kid suggested he was a baby goat.  Back when I freelanced for the Chicago Tribune, photo assignment editor Stan Policht would call me kid. I was not fond of this; I was a colleague. As I got to know him a bit better, or at least get used to him, I decided he wasn't being patronizing, but friendly. A friend told me that some people think "kid" is a reference to the devil. "Young people" works for me, but not often as it is a bit long. I can't use "youth" much. It feels cold, clinical, distant, the language of a grant application or research results. Teenagers might sometimes act like them, but "children" doesn't work either. It makes them sound younger than they are, implying inexperience or a certain amount of innocence. "Kid" it will have to be for now, but with it all the respect these emerging writers and photographers deserve for taking up the challenge of sharing some personal stories.

Day One at Open Door Shelter

Kourtney Hoffman shared this report with PICTURE THIS friends and members after her and other PTPer's first day -- Wednesday, November 17, 2004 --  at Open Door Shelter.

"...Theresa Jarka, Joel Lerner and myself went to The Night Ministry Open Door Shelter to begin working with a few of the kids that are living there. The goal is to have this project continue as an ongoing workshop called: The World As I See It. Participants will take cameras out for a few weeks at a time and document their lives as they see it unfolding before them, etc. Hopefully we will have an exhibition or exhibitions along the way.

As for the shelter, what a place. I don't really know how to describe the energy that was streaming through the building that night, but it was strong. It was controlled chaos I guess you could say, little babies running around and teens trying to figure out what to do with their Wednesday night. (I'm only 26, oh how quickly I forgot I was a teenager once, too. But what I can't imagine is being a teen with a child or without a place to call home.)

Theresa, Joel and I agreed that just by being there and showing our enthusiasm for the kids and for photography, that no matter how many good pictures come out of it, it is time well spent. Honestly, I think this project is going to be about baby steps and showing up on a continual basis...

Later,
Kourtney

Building Bridges Step by Step: PTP's Our World is 10

Between World Cup and a certain house guest, I've got Germany on my mind.

In February 2002, my husband, Joel Lerner, and I finally accepted an invitation to do a PICTURE THIS project at Trifels Gymnasium in Annweiler Germany. We shot with the Trifels kids for three days: two days of portraits at Trifels and a bookstore, plus a Saturday around town joined by other professional photographers. One evening we did a presentation with Trifels student at a local cultural association event, which was a hit.

This was just one more feature of PTP's ongoing project "Our World" initiated in 1996 by a visit from Astrid Maciejewski and her then 10-year old son Daniel.  Astrid and Daniel participated in the last day of the 1996 City Safari project and helped the kids pick images for the project's exhibition. Within the year, Astrid and Daniel, with help from Trifels students and faculty and other interested community members, had mounted two exhibitions. The opening receptions included readings of Langston Hughes work and a jazz band. A few sales were made too.

Later Trifels students sent images our way.  They were assembled in a presentation book and shared with one person at a time, a traveling laptop photo exhibition (without the laptop computer).  Close to 100 people saw this traveling exhibition. Most hand-wrote a comment about their reaction to the images and slipped them into a sleeve adjacent to the picture (a blog without the computer).  This exhibition with the comments went back to Germany; the kids were excited and at least one was stunned.  One boy, not a shooter, but the subject of one of the photos, was amazed that people he never met, so far away, knew him so well merely by looking at a photo.  Comments were translated into German and Trifels students incorporated them and the photos into a spoke-word piece they performed for that local cultural association when we came in 2002.  It was funny and serious.

It has been 10 years since Astrid and Daniel's first visit to Chicago, thus launching the Our World project.  Last month Daniel made the trip without  mom, with girlfriend Maike. He's 20. Interested in everything. This trip is his adventure after finishing school and before he starts more studies...in photography and international business.

What's next for Our World?  Stay tuned.

PTP on Photobetty

"It didn't have to go anywhere beyond that first project. It just did." And so starts a piece on Photobetty about PICTURE THIS Projects written by the awesome Stephanie Sinclair, queen of the photobetties. The piece, posted in 2001, includes a bit about the group's start, some stories and some strong images by girls from past projects.

Text and Photos in Another Chicago Magazine

A few year's ago, Another Chicago Magazine published an essay and photos by kids, including some from our first year, 1993.  The piece gives you a feeling of what PICTURE THIS Projects is all about.

Cornerstones for Cooperation

During PTP's first year of existence, some of our foremothers crafted these guidelines, Cornerstones for Cooperation (PDF). They serves as our "rules". It helps set expectations of conduct within the group. It describes what is commonly thought of as appropriate ways of working together productively.

Kate goes to D.C.

PTP's PR guru Kate Schott ([email protected]) is headed for Washington D.C.  Husband Nolan will attend Georgetown's Law School there.  Former board member Carol Jacobs Smith ([email protected]) moved there not so long ago.  Do I see a PTP-DC in our future?

Byrneen's Store Front Guy

This photo by Bryneen is just one of the pictures chosen to be printed for the exhibition PTP is organized of the Open Door Shelter Project images.  The exhibition was  shown at the August 2006 Society of Professional Journalists convention in Chicago. Those image and others were also include in a multimedia slide show constructed by Will Sullivan. More about exhibiting ODS' work as it comes  in.

A Blog for All

This blog aims to allow the PICTURE THIS Projects community to be more interactive, to share more picture and news about accomplishments and neat photo and community events going on.