Los Angeles Times column featuring How We See It project, February 2020
Student scholar Shae Hammond gives instruction in Photoshop at a workshop session held in the photo lab of the CSUN Journalism Dept, February 2020.
Shae documents her friend Seth as he signs a print in preparation for the first showing, January 2020.
Print signing day turned out to be the perfect culmination for the first phase of our How We See It workshop. It's now official, everyone is all in for a second round starting in late January!
Introductory video to How We See It
”How We See It” involves CSUN students and members of the homeless community in a “participatory photography project” at the Holy Family Service Center of the St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood. The content created during this workshop will appear in exhibitions, publications, on the Internet and in social media. Our first showing was at the Museum of Social Justice in downtown Los Angeles, January 2020.
Cleta Felix-West and David Blumenkrantz
The “Fallen Legends” series by Lelund started incidentally, but quickly turned into an ongoing collection that offers a glimpse into the individual lives that make up a collective humanitarian crisis.
“With this project it would be homeless people documenting their own life and experience instead of someone doing for them. Most homeless people are solely focused on survival so that they don’t have time to do anything else or to focus on anything. As social creatures people need to have some sort of creative outlet or way to express themselves. I thought having photography classes would be a perfect outlet for that.”
FIRST WORKSHOP SESSION: This project has earned Prof. David Blumenkrantz the CSUN Exceptional Service to Students Award
WORKSHOP AGENDA
Sept. 13
Introduction to project; presentation on street photography
Sept. 20
Other styles of photography: landscapes, details
Sept. 27
Cameras distributed; students assigned as mentors to their photographers
Represent: the homeless community, as shown in photographs
Oct. 4
FIRST TOPIC: Environmental landscapes
Oct. 11
Uploading photographs/presentation on portraiture/studio portraiture on site
SECOND TOPIC: Environmental portraiture
Oct. 18
Uploading photographs/studio portraiture on site
THIRD TOPIC: Favorite places
Oct. 25
FOURTH TOPIC-- Road trip #1 Beverly Hills
Nov. 1
Uploading and editing photographs
FIFTH TOPIC: Details of my life, in words and pictures
Nov. 8
SIXTH TOPIC—Road trip #2 Getty Center to see Gordon Parks Flavio exhibit
Nov. 15
Uploading and editing photographs; video interviews with participants
Nov. 22
Uploading and editing photographs
Dec. 6
All written work, oral histories, due today
Dec. 13
Framing the final prints
READINGS
“Transit Tales: A Guide for Creating Participatory Photography Projects with Migrants and Refugees,” a 131-page PDF eBook.
“Can Photography Be Used as a Form of Therapy?”
Article on Contrastly.
“Through Our Eyes” project: “This photographer gave homeless people cameras to document their lives. After five days, 45 of the cameras were returned and over 600 images developed. The results were astonishing.
“Give a homeless person a camera, and they will look at the city in a new way”
Stories of the Streets encourages rough sleepers to capture the world from their perspective and earn money from their photos
Los Angeles Times column featuring How We See It project, February 2020