Photography workshop teaches inner city teens
By Edwin Folven
On Sunday, Jan. 10, photographs taken by 25 inner city L.A. teens will be on display alongside famous photographers’ work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) as they graduate from the Fredric Roberts Photography Workshop, an intensive week-long photojournalism program that teaches photography as a tool of empowerment.
The graduation ceremony will be held from 11a.m.-12:30 p.m., and the exhibition viewing will be held from 12:30-1:30 p.m.
These 25 teenagers from L.A.’s MacArthur Park neighborhood had never used a professional camera until a week ago.
The Fredric Roberts Photography Workshop empowers underprivileged students to use photography (manual mode only) as a tool to tell the stories of their lives and neighborhoods. After hosting seminars in places around the world, including Bhutan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Nicaragua, Fredric Roberts Photography Workshops hosted its first U.S. workshop in partnership with the nonprofit Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) and LACMA.
The teens explored important topics, such as health care and the arts in their community, by photographing a neighborhood health clinic and members of a youth orchestra.
The workshops offered the teens the opportunity to learn the language of photographic expression, giving them a tool to share their stories in a compelling and unique way, with the guidance of internationally-acclaimed professional photographers.
After the program is over, students keep a set of professional cameras and editing software, allowing them to continue to hone their skills after the seminar is over.
LACMA is located at 5905 Wilshire Blvd. To RSVP, contact Merrill Balassone Sugerman at merrill@sugermangroup.com or (310) 974-6683 or Miranda Carroll, at mcarroll@lacma.org or (323) 857-6543.
Parking information is available at www.lacma.org/directions-parking.
For information about the Fredric Roberts Photography Workshop, visit www.fredricrobertsworkshops.org.
http://beverlypress.com/2016/01/photography-workshop-teaches-inner-city-teens/