Project Image,Teen Images,
and The Place Where I Live
Boston Photo Collaborative, Inc.

Walter Bullock presents his photo essay at Project Image’s 2002 final reception.

Photo: Boston Photo Collaborative Staff

Transformative qualities are what all award-winning Coming Up Taller programs share: Students learn a formal discipline, and that new skill takes them to places they had probably never imagined. The Boston Photo Collaborative gives youth the chance to make positive images out of negative circumstances in their lives. These young people develop interpersonal, computer, and creative skills that often transform their futures.

Since 1991, the Collaborative has offered training in photography to reinforce and amplify what students learn in school. Project Image offers training in photojournalism and, when students are ready, opportunities to complete photography assignments for businesses and non-profit organizations around Boston. The 12 students, ages 14-18, who participate in Project Image, a seven-week intensive summer employment program, also put together their own documentary photographic and written essays about issues that affect teens. Often these young people use photography to question and counter media stereotypes of urban youth.

In the year-round, teen-run Teen Images project, high-school students learn about commercial photography and run their own business. Participants develop job-related communication skills and the knowledge of how to operate a small business. Teenagers also learn about digital imaging and Website creation. Working primarily with non-profits, for a modest fee, Teen Images provides these organizations with valuable documentation of the good work they do. It is another way for the teens to give back to their communities.

In the after-school and weekend photography program, The Place Where I Live, students from a neighborhood housing development create photo essays about their home surroundings. Through photography, they gain perspective about their neighborhood while learning a lifelong mode for self-expression. "Through the lens, they document their lives. Through the click of the shutter, they tell us their stories. With their photographs, our teens give back to their peers and to their families, and they learn as much about their community as they do about themselves," observes Heather Beard, associate director of the Collaborative.

By learning and working at the Boston Photo Collaborative, young people have the chance to be taken seriously. "We strive daily to recognize, validate, encourage, and strengthen the voices of today's youth," adds Carl Mastandrea, founder and director.