I assume that everyone is tired of hearing how impressed we are with all of these student’s work. We’re all in such awe because not only have they never touched a camera, or have never  learned through the aid of a translator, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg! So…I’ve tried to refrain from bragging too much this week. But seriously, these guys did great! With all of the complications that have happened throughout the week, I think we were all a little pessimistic in regards to how the kids were doing. Wednesday, for example, was just one of those days  where quite of few of the students were still having difficulty and nothing seemed to be panning out. But now that we’re sitting down and editing the shows for graduation on Saturday, now that we’re looking at all of the images together, we’re seeing a LOT of great stuff. The stories have all of the pieces that we need! The students were able to give these visual narratives depth…and the images are top-notch and thoughtful. What a big breath of relief!

For the graduation ceremony we’ve edited one show for each group that highlights each student’s 10 best images, we’re making a photo essay of the stories, and we’ll do a behind-the-scenes video. Additionally, we’ve decided to include a short slideshow of the first three days of work the advanced students shot. Where we would usually have 6 slideshows, this time we’re having seven..

At around 5pm the students met us in the classroom for one of our favorite rituals…the signing of the prints. One of my favorite little details of this ceremony is how nervous the students get when signing their prints. It’s cool how much of an impact this part of the workshop always ends up being and how they all get a little worked up once they sit in front of their photo and see it up close in such a tangible form. Then they get to claim it, sign it, and it gets hung! This class was no exception to this experience. Some of the students got emotional, some quiet, but all were affected!

And now I can’t wait for them to get up on stage tomorrow!

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