Last winter a retrospective exhibition of work by the noted South African photographer David Goldblatt at the University Museum of Contemporary Art offered a dramatic visual document of life under apartheid. It also inspired a diverse group of Springfield high school students to begin looking at their own environment in a new way—through the camera’s eye.
During a visit to UMass, Goldblatt met with the students to discuss his work and the art of documentary photography. Organizer Elaine Ulman also arranged a session with author and artist Julius Lester, who shared some of the photos he took in the South during the Civil Rights movement. Lester encouraged the young people to “find what moves you, what is beautiful to you, and take that picture. No one else can see the world the way you do.”
These encounters led to a three-month project involving two dozen students in classes and clubs at Springfield’s Central, Commerce and Renaissance high schools, with hands-on assistance from members of Pioneer Valley Photographic Artists. The fruits of the project were exhibited at the UMass gallery in April, and last week the show, titled Springfield: The City Intersected, moved to a public space in the kids’ hometown.
The opening reception in downtown Springfield’s Tower Square was attended by Superintendent of Schools Alan Ingram and other notables, evidence that this project amounted to something bigger than a classroom exercise. The mounted prints, mostly black-and-white, range in subject matter from misty street scenes and snowscapes to spontaneous still lifes of familiar objects seen from unexpected angles.
There are very few people in these pictures. Melissa Alves, who teaches a photography class at Central High, explained that she urged her students to look beyond the people in their lives and use the camera to gaze into the environments they live in. “I wanted them to look at the shadows and contrasts and visual elements, because that would tell more about what they see in Springfield.”
The students were instructed in composition and darkroom technique, and guided in judging the images they brought back to school. Alves said she helped the students see “what really works as a good and powerful image,” while also encouraging them to identify “which ones you feel really strongly about, that express something about your environment that you really want the world to see.”
She said several students had told her, “We got to know the city again. We never paid that much attention to what was around us, but now we can see what’s around us, what’s happening.” She added, “It’s also a great boost to their self-confidence, especially with the culmination of these shows.”
The kids were also excited at discovering what for many of them was a new medium of expression. James Tramble, for instance, joined Yvette Morin’s photography club at the High School of Commerce after seeing the Goldblatt exhibit. “I was moved. So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll give it a shot.’ And I like it—I love it. I could do this forever. People had told me it’s a good feeling, and it’s amazing.”
Molly Burke, a junior at the Springfield Renaissance School, is represented in the exhibit by a triptych—three shots of the same house taken from exactly the same angle. The first one shows a corner of the house, partly masked by the bare branches of a tree, in a light snowfall. In the next, taken at night, fire is leaping from the roof. And in the third, a blue tarp covers the fire-damaged section awaiting repair. “When I saw the fire, I realized I already had the other picture,” she explained, adding, “I didn’t intend there to be a fire!”
In this sequence of shots, she sees a metaphor of history in the City of Homes. “Springfield was a great city that flourished, then the Armory left and the highways came in, and Springfield was, well, not ruined, but it came down a lot and people with a lot of money moved out. And now people are trying to do something about it and it’s under construction again.”
Kay’la Sanders described a picture she took of her own shadow on a flower-lined wall at Central High this way: “I like how the bricks are clean-cut, sturdy and structured, and the flowers are sweet, simple, yet at the same time it’s elegant. With my shadow on top of it I thought it would describe me as being a sweet, elegant, strong, and structured young woman.”
Killian Major, a junior at Central, said, “I like the creativity and the freedom. And even if a photo isn’t too beautiful at first, you can make it beautiful. It’s an art.”
A picture that Commerce freshman Joanna Ojeda took of her own reflection refracted in a sudden springtime puddle “reminds me of Springfield, because you always find a surprise wherever you turn.”
While the project built on existing photography programs at Commerce and Central, for students at the Renaissance School it was their first foray into the form. According to teacher Michael Gillane, “We just got some cameras and jumped into it. There are 600 pictures right now on my computer. By the end of the project, the kids in the group felt really empowered as artists.” The project has seeded what Gillane hopes will be a continuing program in the school.
Springfield: The City Intersected, is on view through June 10 at Tower Square Court, 1500 Main St., Springfield.