Santa Clarita homeschooled teens Andreya Garcia and twin brothers Eithan and Matthew Gaxiola were looking for enrichment programs to meet other students their age. On their own separate accounts, all three 10th graders joined the 12-week-long California Institute of the Arts Community Arts Partnership Photography Lab Program.
Every Saturday, the three students along with 30 others from Los Angeles County high schools attended the CalArts campus to learn the technical procedures and explored how to photograph film and develop images in a dark room, a style that isn’t practiced much anymore.
On May 11, the program ended with a special reception and an exhibition so students could showcase their original photographs with friends and family at the Old Town Newhall Library.
The exhibit, titled “From the Sweet Flypaper of Life,” is available for viewing until July 16. The theme was to capture moments that depicted “home” to them. The still images were diverse, all completely different from one another.
Matthew and Eithan have moved homes a lot throughout their lives. In a photo titled “Got Time” Matthew captured a large clock that was hung up on a wall. The clock is the first thing he sees every morning and the object, which may seem insignificant to many people, has been a constant item throughout many moves, said Matthew. Matthew knows he’s home when he sees the clock every morning.
Eithan captured a photo titled “The Boy’s Room” where he and his brother along with a friend were composing music for their newly established band. Recently it’s been one of their activities and they spend a lot of time with one another practicing their musical instruments and honing in on the creative endeavor.
Garcia captured a photo of a friend at the Old Town Newhall Library, a place where she spends a lot of time and enjoys, she said.
The program, open to all students with or without photography experience, aims to expose participants to different creative avenues. The program also provides bus transportation for inner-city students who may not have the resources for the commute up to the Santa Clarita Valley.
Teachers Alejandro Sanchez and Evelyn Yin spent a lot of time helping the students develop their technical skills and confidence but the biggest reward for them as teachers was helping the students find their voice.
“You start to talk about [the work]. They get to share their voice on different artworks. It’s not necessarily their work but we might show [them] professional artists or we will go to take a look at some of the CalArts students work exhibitions, and to hear them bring their voice and find their voice is huge,” he said. “Have them break out of that shell and blossom.”
“That’s what’s great about putting a camera in the youth’s hand. Art is a language and if you cut off the art, you cut off the language. This is a form of language and it gives a voice to the students.”
Eithan picked up a camera in junior high school and fell in love with photography. During the program, learning how long the process it took to develop one still image and the tedious process was a “completely different experience,” he said. A piece of advice he hopes future students will take if interested in the program is to “feel free to have your imagination go wild.”
