You’re walking through the farmers’ market this summer with an armful of fresh vegetables and your kids playing with a new balloon animal when suddenly — SNAP — a young photographer takes your picture and offers you the memento for a small fee.
It’s not the work of a gang of roving paparazzi but rather the end result of a year’s worth of cumulative collaboration between professional photographer Alex Iskander and Lorne Akins art teacher Sheena Priddle. Together, they have been engaging her art students into further developing their technical and artistic photography skills.
This summer, they will be taking those skills to the streets for more practice but also to help with a local service club.
Youth Street Photography is the name of the group that is still recruiting new participants for Through Your Eyes. The young photographers will roam the city’s popular attractions and locations looking for willing subjects. The photos can be purchased for $20 with all proceeds going to the local chapter of the Canadian Progress Club.
Iskander explained this is a win-win for everybody involved. It has always been important for him to give back and to help the young generations. This way, he says, he can do both at once. It all started when he participated in the school’s career day a few years ago and found there was a lot of interest in his line of work.
“It was very successful. I’ve been thinking since that time what to do to involve those kids more into the community and also take that talent and make it more professional.”
He wanted the club to receive the financial benefits of the sales because it helps fund the St. Albert Youth Community Centre.
“I’ve found that they are more involved with the youth more than any organization that I know of.”
Since the city is celebrating such a momentous anniversary this year, he thought it would be even better to make the results of this project into a permanent record. The pictures will become part of the city’s archives.
Grade 9 student Jeannie Verbeek said it was a worthwhile pursuit at which she hopes to improve this summer.
“It’s one of my interests,” she said, recalling all the techniques she learned this school year. “We got a lot of cool results.”
Priddle was thrilled her students received the extra attention, saying she sees bigger and brighter things for the future.
“They learned how to see every day objects in their city as art, which they seemed to really enjoy. They got to look at things in a new way. They learned how to see artfully.”
For anyone interested in learning how to take compelling photos and then edit and print them as well, Youth Street Photography is having its first meeting this Saturday from 1 to 2 p.m. in the boardroom at the St. Albert Youth Community Centre in Grandin Park Plaza.
The group is also collecting five-megapixel point-and-shoot cameras to supply to students who don’t have their own.
For more information, call 780-418-0678 ext. 26 or visit www.saycc.ca.
