Posted by Judy Weiser, Administrator The article is by Randy Kennedy -- and here is his summary: "Pulled from chaotic lives to the camera lens, a handful of teenage girls are using art therapy at the International Center of Photography to move from the darkness to the light" Well, of course this is more PhotoTherapy (or, more properly "Therapeutic Photography") than Art Therapy -- but regardless the work was done (and done well!) -- and thus I thought it worth sharing this info with readers of this Discussion Group today! The full article can be found at (yes, the lines below are all *ONE long web address* -- either click below or copy the entire long url line(s) below): NOTE: I do not know how long the N.Y. Times keeps links "alive" to pages like this in their archives. However, I have bookmarked this in my own computer so if you are reading this after the above link no longer works, please contact me back-channel and I will be happy to send you the archived article and photos, from inside my own computer (for no cost)... There are also a lot of wonderful photos to accompany it (*click on the "more photos" link* on that page above)... I think this is really exciting work and needs to be seen! Yes it is similar to others such as "Youth In Focus" and others on my "Related Links" page of my website ALSO: the project above was done as part of a larger Program -- the "Friends of Rikers Island Academy" which is itself worth reading about -- a High School connected with a prison!: http://www.foiany.org/foia/mission.php Here's brief excerpt now, from that "Friends" website, in case you want to know about the Program itself: > Over the last 15 weeks, mostly in the basement editing rooms of the BOTH sites are definitely worth a look, I think... Judy (Weiser)
Link: N.Y. Times Therapeutic Photography Article
on 7/7/2006, 11:31 am
207.6.249.108
I thought I'd share this link I was told about yesterday -- it's about an article that appeared in the N.Y. Times on July 5, 2006 (in their "ARTS / ART & DESIGN" section). Titled "Lessons in New Ways to See", it is about a Therapeutic Photography project done with a group of young women who were leaving an incarceration facility: they were guided in taking photos of each other (and talking about these) -- with the goal of exploring themselves and their futures.
email me directly at: jweiser@phototherapy-centre.com
(see: http://www.phototherapy-centre.com/links.htm) but there's no "competition" going on here -- all of these are great projects and all deserve to be known about!
> International Center of Photography in Midtown Manhattan, more than
> a dozen girls — who all have been in trouble with the law — have
> been trying to gain a measure of control over their difficult lives
> by looking at them through the relative calm of a camera lens. Or
> more accurately, as seen on a camera video screen, lighted up along
> the back of an eight-megapixel digital camera.
>
> The program providing the cameras was created last year in
> collaboration with the Friends of Island Academy, an organization
> that supports the high school on Rikers Island and tries to help
> lower the recidivism rate for its alumni.
>
> Art therapy has been used for years to try to give troubled youth a
> different perspective on their lives, and photography has long
> aided that process by lowering the barriers to entry: no need to
> know how to draw or paint, just a willingness to pick up a camera
> and try.
>
> But digital photography is now offering the added power of
> immediacy, instantaneous images that are proving especially
> effective for groups of girls like those in the program, mostly
> black and Hispanic, who struggle as much as or perhaps more than
> teenage boys with how they are viewed by society.
>
> The cameras, which the girls learned to use both on the streets and
> in a studio, allow them not only the rare chance to channel their
> energy into a creative project but also to control images of
> themselves.....
>
the rest of the info about this Program can be found on that website
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