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Workshops for at-risk youth
I. Polaroid Power: An Instant Look at Ourselves (1988)
This six-week photographic workshop was conducted for inner-City youth at the
Whitmarsh House, Providence, Rhode Island as a part of the Metro Arts program, a
substance-abuse prevention program through the Arts. The Polaroid medium was
utilized to offer instant results as visual concepts were pursued. This "quick" image
was instrumental in providing stimulus and accessibility to analysis. A materials grant
(cameras and film) was obtained from the Polaroid Foundation. Each session
progressed through visualization levels to offer the core-group members guidance re:
portraiture, composition, shape and form, foreground/background relationship,
depth-of-field, juxtaposition, collage/montage and documentary.
Session A:
A core-group member was utilized as the sole subject, as his colleagues made
photographs (one per member) at their discretion. The portraits differ, even though
they are of the same individual, and reveal a multiform subject as perceived by the
other members. The subject evolves as a flesh object, determined by each colleague's
approach to visualization of his co-member. A remote-control device was held by the
subject to make his own photograph through self-portraiture. The camera was placed
in-hand (per member) for the first time and through familiarity and friendship within
the core-group, the visualization process began.
Session B:
The core-group members continued portraiture through team activity. Two teams
made photographs (one camera per team) at their own discretion, and they worked
independently of each other. It's interesting that many of the images involved a
particular colleague. This is due, possibly, to his personality and his willingness to be
photographed and his rapport with the members or a combination thereof. A few
members chose to document the environs of the classroom. Two of the images display
slow-shutter-speed/camera-movement technique that conjures-up the esprit, and
reveals passage of time. The camera was placed in-hand (per member) for the second
time and through team approach, photographs were made in a consultative manner
or discussion between the members.
Session C:
The core-group members moved outdoors, and formed two teams (one camera per
team). They pursued site documentation at their own discretion, but based upon
classroom discussion re: portraiture, composition, shape and form,
foreground/background relationship, depth-of-field, juxtaposition, collage/montage
and documentary. Various images display a premeditated approach to the
subject(s)/object(s), and impart knowledge of the value of the visual. One image in
particular - hands and arms extended in front of a brick wall - is a good example of
superimposition, pattern, contrast, coloration, shape/form and animate/inanimate
comparison. Other images - subjects jumping from entrance steps - exemplify the
passage of time (blurred movement) and the stoppage of time (frozen movement).
The outdoors extended the boundaries ad infinitum, and afforded greater flexibility
for documentation.
Session D:
The core-group members moved outdoors, and worked as a unit in response to
assignment documentation. The colleagues worked through four assignments at their
own discretion: 1) object/automobile - shape/form and image design; 2)
subject/staff aide - environmental portraiture and candid; 3) subject(s)/children
playing soccer - documentary; 4) object/facility and windows - shape/form and

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architectural. When the images (per assignment category) are seen as a collection,
they represent unit (entire core-group) coverage, and make us aware that even
though the objects/subjects are perceived differently per individual, visual
relationships exist to convey meaning. Parts make up a whole and in this case, each
core-group member contributed a visual part to the whole re: assignment
documentation.
Session E:
The core-group members moved outdoors, and formed two teams (two cameras per
team). A member was designated team leader (per team), and was asked to make
assignments at his own discretion. A particular group of images involves shadow-
play, and imparts an otherworldliness. It represents a good example of a shape/form
study, and displays the arrangement of parts composed. Another group of images -
automobile surfaces and emblems - is a good example of a shape/form study, and it
evokes moodiness through soft-focus and catch-lighting from the flash attachment
on the camera. The two images of the sky - one without a reference point and the
other with one (top corner of a building) - are a good example of documentation of
the latter needing the former to convey meaning, and provide correct identification.
Task responsibility increased for the team leaders as they not only pursued self-
visualization, but also guided the colleagues through their visualization process.
Session F:
The core-group members moved outdoors, and formed four teams (one camera per
team). They worked independently of each other. Photographs were made of
objects/subjects at each team's discretion, but based upon classroom discussion of
visualization and analysis of images made during previous sessions. The two images
of foliage, the image of the toilet and the image of a dirt-floor room conjured-up for a
particular member, the Vietnam War and plight of the POWs. The images of hand-play
and composite Polaroids on the automobile surface impart an aesthetic study of the
producers (the core-group members) and the product (Polaroid prints).
Session G:
The core-group members pursued exposures in assembled sequences that challenge
the single-instant, single-viewpoint image. This is in keeping with David Hockney'
collages involving instant prints. The members made photographs of one another and
the instructor by visually sectioning the subject into thirds, then arranging the
sections (per subject) to make a collage portrait. The group moved outdoors to
continue the sectioning technique and collage approach to objects and sites. The
collage of the house displays a vertical panorama; the collage of the door to a
women's restroom is reminiscent of Western paintings and photographs of adobe
structures due to simplistic design and coloration of the doorway and wall; and the
collages of the automobiles are reminiscent of the two-fold and three-fold ads in
magazines. This sectioning of subjects, locations and objects forced the core-group
members to view the documentation area over and over for increased awareness to
visualization; and the placing of the images to form meaningful collages reinforced
the members' minds-eye re: parts make up a whole.
Session H:
The core-group members moved outdoors as a unit (one camera per member), and
pursued assignment documentation throughout the neighborhood. As the group
moved from location to location, they asked various individuals and groups of
individuals in the neighborhood to be a part of the documentation process. The
members made documentary photographs of a family relaxing on their front porch, a
man walking down a street listening to police and fire calls on his portable scanner, a
family of older siblings taking care of younger ones in front of their home, a mother
watching over her children while sitting on a street curb, a man going over

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documents at his automobile, a group of children gathered on top of an automobile
trunk and a woman and child inside her automobile while waiting for relatives to join
them.
II. Our Third Eye: A Polaroid Project (1990)
This four-week, photographic workshop was taught for inner-City youth at the Smith
Hill Center, Providence, Rhode Island as a part of the Metro Arts program, a
substance-abuse prevention program through the Arts. The Polaroid medium was
utilized to record our third eye, and to offer instant results as visual concepts were
pursued. A materials grant (cameras and film) was obtained from the Polaroid
Foundation. Each session progressed through visualization levels to offer the core-
group members guidance re: visualization/evaluation of their surroundings and
confidence-building for the interactive process.
Sessions A & B:
The core-group members moved outside and remained in the immediate vicinity of
Smith Hill Center. They approached an area/situation as a team, and made one
exposure each. This team- or group-approach provided a comparative study of their
third eye or ability to visualize/evaluate through a medium. As the core-group
members ventured from site to site, but still within the immediate vicinity of the
Center, directions were given to not only visualize/evaluate an area/situation, but
also manipulate or introduce a factor that would change the documentary result. This
interactive process within an area or as a part of a situation began to instill a greater
confidence within the core-group as they journeyed onward. Ten areas/situations
reflect the core-group's ability to begin to visualize/evaluate with their third eye. The
interactive process is seen as a part of: shadow-play, gentleman in an auto, towels,
trash cans and no parking anytime sign.
Session C:
The core-group members ventured farther away from the Smith Hill Center facility,
and moved into an activity at a local grocery store parking lot. They continued their
team approach per area/situation as it relates to visualization/evaluation and to the
interactive process. Each grouping of photographs shows either the human element
or an object that relates to the activity: in this case, Valueland's Special Events Day.
One of the core-group members acted as group leader to determine area/situation for
documentation. The core group moved away from the previous activity, and ventured
down the street. Still under the leadership of the same core-group member, various
areas/items/objects and a situation were visualized/evaluated for documentation.
These groupings of images concentrate on item/object documentation, and enhance
considerations for perspective, lighting and shape/form. The core-group shifted from
inanimate to inanimate.
Session D:
The core-group members ventured even farther away from the Smith Hill Center
facility, and moved into the neighborhood of one of the members. This member
became group leader, and determined the area/situation for team documentation.
These groupings of images show an overview of the group leader's neighborhood: his
home and sister, aunt, grandmother, friends and other neighborhood homes. The core
group moved into the neighborhood of another member. Group leadership shifted to
this member for team documentation of the area/situation. These groupings of
images show an overview of the group leader's neighborhood: political/retail signs,
homes and foliage. Additional coverage continued later as a part of the annual
Providence Waterfront Festival and as an extension of the workshop process. The
core-group members provided documentation with a certain self-confidence and
skill-level that were acquired as a part of the workshop process.

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News coverage: Inner-City youths who said yes to the arts will march and
demonstrate their crafts (Taking charge of their lives): Visitors to the 1990
Providence Waterfront Festival will want to keep their eyes peeled and their watches
synchronized for a unique parade scheduled for 2pm tomorrow. That's when a troupe
of about 60 children from the City's Metro-Arts program will wind their way through
the festival crowd, carrying brightly colored banners and performing juggling and
acrobatic tricks. "We've got clowns and jugglers and all kinds of things," says Metro-
Arts coordinator, Thomas Russack. "The kids have worked especially hard because
they know they are going to have a big audience." The parade will eventually work its
way back to the eastern edge of India Point Park, where the Metro-Arts program also
is sponsoring a demonstration of African drumming and a mural-painting workshop.
Both the demonstration and the workshop are free and open to the public. The parade
also will call attention to one of the State's most innovative programs for dealing with
the problem of teenage substance abuse. Founded in 1985 at the Smith Hill Center in
Providence, Metro-Arts organizes regular arts and crafts workshops for children ages
8 to 14, who are considered to be at risk from temptations of drugs and alcohol. "We
try to show them that there are alternatives to things like crack and booze," Russack
says. "If we can teach them to have confidence in their own abilities - if we can get
them to believe in themselves - then there's less chance that they'll reach for some
kind of crutch. We use the Arts as a way of getting them to take charge of their lives."
The program currently serves seven Providence neighborhoods, including Elmwood,
Federal Hill, Fox Point, South Providence and the West End. Workshops are held in
local community centers, such as the Fox Point Boys and Girls Club on the East Side
and the Hartford Park Community Center in Olneyville, and are run by professional
artists whose interests range from theater and photography to juggling and balloon-
making. The parade and other Metro-Arts activities will be captured on film by a team
of fledgling photojournalists under the supervision of Tom R. Chambers, Providence
artist and photographer. Using cameras donated by the Polaroid Foundation,
Chambers recently held a four-week workshop at the Smith Hill Center that explored
the styles and techniques of photojournalism. "I think I got as much out of it as they
did," Chambers says. "They have so much energy and enthusiasm. Partly, it's
discovering something new, like how to work a camera or how to think the way a
news photographer thinks. But it's also a thrill for them to be challenged in a creative
way. I think that's something they don't really get enough of." (Bill Van Siclen, Arts
Writer, The Providence Journal-Bulletin, Providence, Rhode Island, September 7,
1990)
(Please note: images re: the workshops are not available at this time due to non-
access of originals that reside at the Smith Hill Center.)
III. Street Kids In Action (SKIA) Harare, Zimbabwe, Africa (1993-1995)