By Artist Mentor Rebecca Ulasich
Culture
Sharing and Learning
Experiences
Family
Tradition
Media
These were just some of the nearly 225 different words and phrases that a collection of students and their mentors brainstormed in response to the question What shapes your identity?
It was a beautiful Saturday morning and 7 pairs of middle school students from Simpson Housing and their adult mentors were gathered for a photography class at the Inverted Arts studio. We talked about our identities, shared what other people say about us, and what we say about ourselves. Then, after a quick photography primer, headed into the sunshine to capture images that represent us – self portraits that don’t show our faces, but show aspects of our identities.
During lunch I printed out their top photos as they wrote captions. They then framed and hung their images along the studio wall. Our impromptu gallery was beautiful and profound as we each walked down the line of images, admiring the photography and commenting on the captions.
It was an honor to be invited for a few hours into each person’s story and their creative ways of expressing themselves.
