I took these photos of members of an Atlanta Regional Committee (ARC) Millennial Advisory Panel Action Team for a project that they will be presenting to the ARC and other community leaders later this month. The project focuses on education inequality among the Atlanta school system with the goal of identifying problems contributing to disparities in education and recommending targeted solutions.
As a component of its visual presentation, the team wanted to include photos of each member at his or her respective district school. I was initially apprehensive about taking on this project because it required me to photograph five different people (three of whom I’d never met) at five different locations in a two-weeks time frame.
Other than getting caught in a downpour twice, the project turned out to be an all-around great experience for me. I enjoyed exploring the campuses of Atlanta schools that I’d probably never otherwise have any reason to visit, admiring their structures and observing their after-school student activity. I also loved getting to know my subjects, all of whom were easygoing, engaging, and comfortable in front of the camera. More than that, they were all smart and passionate community leaders with visions for improving our city.
These photo shoots also provided me with an opportunity to grow as a photographer by forcing me outside of my comfort zone. Photographing people I didn’t know in settings with which I was unfamiliar challenged me to think on my feet a lot about decisions regarding lighting and composition. It also gave me practice with trying to put subjects at ease and earn their trust.
Finally, I’m happy that I was able to contribute, even if only in a small way, to a project with a mission of improving access to quality public education for all elementary, middle, and high school students in the Atlanta region. Through my interaction with the team members, I learned details about the overwhelming education inequality in my own community and was clued in on some new ideas on how to more smartly approach some of the problems.
I am a huge proponent of using art and creativity to help engineer social change and hope for more opportunities like this in the future to work on projects that have a goal of creating social impact.
Best of luck to this team of smart and driven community leaders, and many thanks for making my job so easy!