FotoFinish 2021: Student Voices in a Virtual Reality features the work of students participating in FotoFest’s Literacy Through Photography Learning Program (LTP). It is a yearly tradition celebrating young artists from Literacy Through Photography’s residency programs that take place at schools and community organizations across the Greater Houston Area.
Since early 2020, students across the world have had to deal with the challenging realities brought upon by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Schools, workplaces, and households collectively struggled to negotiate how to continue life in a socially isolated world. Literacy Through Photography adapted to these changing realities by creating LTP Online, a virtual residency program operating through web conferencing and online learning platforms beginning in Fall 2020. Virtual residencies meant re-learning how to connect and engage with students as educators, and adapting Literacy Through Photography’s newly revised curriculum published in Summer 2020 to a virtual setting.
While the challenges brought on by the pandemic are still ever present, Literacy Through Photography is proud to present the work of student artists whose voices and visions remain as strong as ever. This exhibition features a selection of student photography, writing, and digital artwork from participants in Literacy Through Photography’s virtual residencies this past school year.
Student pieces explore Literacy Through Photography’s curricular themes – SELF, HOME, COMMUNITY, and DREAMS – while contending with the ways our collective creative processes as arts administrators, teaching artists, teachers, and students have had to stretch in the midst of a virtual reality.
Literacy Through Photography and FotoFest sincerely thank the schools, teachers, Teaching Artists, and students who have collaborated with us in the past school year and helped us create an important space for student reflection and art-making when it has been needed the most.
Emily Areta, Program Director
April M. Frazier, Interim Advancement Director
Special thanks to 2020-2021 FotoFest Literacy Through Photography Teaching Artists and Staff: Adanna Ade, Aisha Lakhani, Anne Houang, Ashura Bayyan, Ceci Norman, Claudia Corletto, Eddie Correa, Felicia Johnson, Gabriella Pomales, Jamie Robertson, Leticia Contreras, Moe Penders, Nife Le Blanc, Tamirah Collins, Victor Lara, and Xev Connor.
Special thanks to the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation and The Powell Foundation for supporting this curriculum revision and to the entire team that brought the revised curriculum into fruition: Amy Evans, April M. Frazier, Briana Olson, Emily Areta, Hafsa Yucel, Michelle Kiang, Moe Penders, Tay Butler, Todnesha Brown, and the FotoFest Staff.
Eveyah Garay, 3rd Grade, Longfellow Elementary, Image prompt: Photograph an object or several objects together that represent home to you.
HISTORY OF LITERACY THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY
Literacy Through Photography (LTP) began in 1987 with a series of groundbreaking photography workshops commissioned by FotoFest co-Founder Frederick Baldwin and conducted by educator and photographer Wendy Ewald. Expanding to roughly one thousand Houston Independent School District students by 1990, the program grew from the initial pilot project into a full-scale photography, writing, and literacy program that offers students an avenue for greater self-expression and exploration.
The foundation curriculum and special curricular companions blend stream-of-consciousness creative writing prompts, social-emotional learning, visual literacy exercises, and photography-based art projects as a means to stretch student imaginations, broaden perspectives, build creative skills, and develop their voices.
LITERACY THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY
REVISED CURRICULUM
Literacy Through Photography’s revised curriculum was published in Summer 2020 and expands on over thirty years of foundational work by Literacy Through Photography program founders. The curriculum is designed to empower students to explore new avenues for self-expression and social emotional growth. Lessons span LTP’s four curricular themes — SELF, HOME, COMMUNITY, and DREAMS — and encourage student reflection and artmaking through writing, visual literacy, photography, and mixed media art practices. Students have full creative control of the artwork and writing they produce and are encouraged to express themselves and their viewpoints authentically.
2020-2021 PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMS
ALIEF ISD: Martin Elementary; HOUSTON ISD: Bastian Elementary*; Burbank Elementary; Booker T. Washington High School*; Lockhart Elementary*; Longfellow Elementary*; Martinez Elementary; Paul Revere Middle School; Pugh Elementary; T.H. Rogers School; CHARTER SCHOOLS: Academy of Accelerated Learning*; BakerRipley Gulfton Sharpstown Campus*; George I. Sanchez Charter School; Houston STEM Academy*; Southwest Charter School; COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS: Havard Boys & Girls Club*; Holthouse Boys & Girls Club; SHAPE Community Center; Better Tomorrows Yale Village Apartments. *Denotes exhibiting sites
2020-2021 PROGRAM SPONSORS
Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation; The Powell Foundation; Judith and Gamble Baldwin; Frederick Baldwin and Wendy Watriss; The Melvyn and Cyvia Wolff Family Fund; Arts Connect Houston; Center for After-School, Summer, and Expanded Learning (CASE); Harris County Department of Education; FotoFest Board of Directors; and Silver Street Studios.
2020-2021 COMMUNITY PARTNERS
BakerRipley Community Center; Better Tomorrows Yale Village Apartments; Boys & Girls Club of Greater Houston; Houston Arts Partners; The Houston Museum District (HMDA); SHAPE Community Center; and Young Audiences of Houston.
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