Developing Skills Through Photographic Storytelling at the Yellin Center

Everyone can take photographs and develop "visual" literacy. With the camera as the technological tool of choice in the 21st Century, students can capture what they see and imagine and describe their photographs in their own words too.

The process in the workshop Myself, My Family, My Community, My Dreams, taught by professional photographer and teaching artist Roberta Fineberg, is a simple one: write, shoot, write; and then begin again. Kids are encouraged to retain their natural sense of play to build upon their strengths so that they can share their lives with others through words (narrative) and images (point of view). Effectively using two languages of imagination, photography and writing, participants learn through art education to communicate emotionally, visually, orally, and in writing; mastering even more complex learning skills.

Ms Fineberg believes that "getting personal--creating a space in which students are comfortable with the realities of their lives, problems, worries, fears, hopes, and dreams"--positively affects the learning process. With a focus equally on task completion, the final project is a professionally designed and printed group book of participants’ writing and photography. "Readers of the group book ultimately bear witness to the world that tweens and teens inhabit," says Fineberg, "fortuitous eyewitnesses to kids' dreams and plans for the future."

Roberta Fineberg is an award-winning photographer, published writer and author, and teaching artist based in New York City. Her interdisciplinary workshops include: Literacy through Photography (LTP), ESL through Photography, Autobiography through Photography (her creation), and signature program, Myself, My Family, My Community, My Dreams.

The 6-week workshop for kids, Myself, My Family, My Community, My Dreams is being offered on Wednesdays from 3:45-5:15, beginning Sept. 30 at The Yellin Center for Student Success (104 West 29th St., 12th fl, NYC 10001). For more information, please call: 646.775.6646.