For the past eight years, Riverviews has worked with Lynchburg College to present Picture My World, a photography program designed for at-risk eighth graders. This year, students from the Fort Hill Community School have spent the past several months exploring ideas about community, family, and their identity. The photos and writing samples from this program will be displayed in the Jefferson Lobby Gallery at Riverviews through August.

Picture My World:

Opening – May 6th, 5:30-8:00pm (free and open to the public)

Riverviews Artspace and Lynchburg College’s Center for Community Development & Social Justice are pleased to announce the 7th annual Picture My World exhibition.  This exhibition of photography by students will open First Friday, May 6^th, from 5:30-8pm in the Reading Room at Riverviews.

For the past several months, a group of ten eight-grade students from Lynchburg, Virginia has been hard at work taking photographs, writing, and designing an exhibition.  The program, which is based on Duke University’s Literacy through Photography program encourages youth to utilize art and writing as a means of self-expression. By taking cameras out into the community and recording their daily life, students are allowing the viewers a glimpse into their world.

For the program, students are asked to take photographs of their “community” in categories such as school, family, friends, and neighborhood/town.  Once they are back in the classroom, students reflect on their work through writing activities and group discussions.  The intent is to encourage students to express their emotions and articulate their thoughts on the idea of “community”.

This program is generously supported by The George T. Stewart Young Champions Program at Lynchburg College.

Literacy Through Photography

For the past sixyears, Riverviews has hosted groups of eighth-graders for Picture my World, a literacy through photography program.  The intent is to encourage students to express their emotions and articulate their thoughts on the idea of “community.”  By taking cameras out into the community and recording their daily life, students are allowing the viewers a glimpse into their world.  

The Exhibition:  Students work with teacher/mentors to successfully complete the program culminating in a student curated exhibition of their own photography mounted at Riverviews Artspace. 

 Using digital cameras, the students made portraits, of self and others, and pictures in the community; they discussed reading and composing images.  Each student made the final selection of their six photographs to be included in the exhibition, and titled all six.  Only some images chosen were manipulated, but all reflect the students personalities and interests and their world as they see it.

Their exhibition will be on display for approximately a month in Riverviews’ ground floor lobby gallery.

The inspiration: Picture My World is modeled after the Literacy Through Photography Program begun in 1990 by photographer and teacher Wendy Ewald at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. The LTP program is designed to encourage students, typically in grades five through eight, to explore their world as they photograph scenes from their lives and then use their images as catalysts for oral and written expression. 

 Picture My World 2007-10 was made possible by Lynchburg College’s Center for Community Development and Social Justice, Riverviews Artspace. and the Virginia Commission for the Arts