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WYOMING — While 18-year-old Ali Fitzgerald, from Wyoming Area High School, likes to shoot photos of animals, Theresa Rose Mitten, 18, from Wyoming Seminary, said her favorite photos show texture.
“I have a thing for street signs,” GAR High School student Asia Charles admitted with a laugh.
As for 15-year-old Helen Campbell, also from GAR, she’s drawn to urban decay.
Professional photographer Jamie Smith, who mentors student photographers through the not-profit Social Fabric Collective he and his wife, Jenni, established, recognizes their interests and encourages them to stretch in other directions, as well.
“We have weekly assignments, and one week they might have to shoot portraits,” he said. “But then they have the freedom to fill up their card with photos of something they’re interested in.”
The public is invited to see the work of the 10 students who recently completed the Social Fabric Collective’s spring program during a reception set for 5 to 8 pm. June 9 at Smith’s studio in the T.W. Shoemaker Art building, 312 Wyoming Ave. — and see what they’ve learned.
As they’ve honed their skills shooting images at PNC field, a local farm, Wilkes-Barre’s Fine Arts Fiesta and other locations, Smith said, he hasn’t been trying to prepare them for careers in photography.
“It’s more about building self-confidence and empathy,” he said.
Indeed, the exhibit is called “Explore Your EmPATHy.”
As the students viewed each other’s work during a recent meeting, they discussed depth of field, what their subjects were doing and how hard it can be to photograph children.
“I promised her ice cream,” Gabby Nichols said of a younger girl whose portrait she had shot.
Photographer Corinne Chace, who co-taught the class, showed the students the contrast between posed photos and candids that showed more motion and emotion.
That difference really hit home with Fitzgerald this semester. “I see the joy in candid pictures,” she said. “There’s a lot more feeling.”
Asked what else she has learned in the class, Fitzgerald said, “Last year, I wouldn’t have paid attention to lights or what’s in the corner or what’s in the background. Now, I do.”
As the class progressed, Smith talked about exploring subjects further. Looking at a photo of a steeple one student had shot, he asked, “Does anyone know the name of this church?” “Have you ever gone inside?”
No one said they’d ever gone inside the church, but they supplied adjectives to describe the outside roof, mostly “beautiful” and “gothic.”
Passing around some famous photos, Smith said the students should be aware that photographs can shape opinions and change the world. A Pulitzer Prize-winning image photographer Nick Ut shot during the Vietnam War, for example, showed 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc running, her clothes burned away and skin singed by napalm. “It really changed people’s perception of the war in Vietnam,” Smith told the class.
Application forms for the Social Fabric Collective’s fall session, which begins in September, can be found at socialfabriccollective.org and, thanks to generous donations, full scholarships are available.
“You just need to be in high school,” Smith said. “You don’t need equipment and you don’t need experience.”
