When you share your love and passion for the photographic arts with the up and coming generations, you seize the opportunity to inspire your audience in their search for, focus on, capture of, and communication about the beauty, hope, and just plain interesting that exists in the world.
Shawn Roberts
Executive Director
Photo Perspectives
Click the image above to view the online version of our participants’ most recent printed publication.
Our Purpose
Photo Perspectives exists as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization focused on using photography to help tweens and teens examine their world, and its inhabitants, from different angles. We facilitate an extracurricular photography experience for middle schools and other youth organizations by providing:
- Funding for an Instructor
- Online Learning and Collaboration Portal
- Camera and Lighting Gear
- Educational Material
- Ongoing Support
Our Goals
Participant Enhancement
Tasking our youth to seek out and capture the beauty, hope, and good in the world necessarily makes them a part of it. Repetition of task makes it a habit.
Community Enhancement
Placing beautiful, uplifting imagery for all in a community to enjoy only raises the collective spirit and makes the local world a little more positive.
Mutual Investment of Community and Photographer
Public display of our young photographers' work helps directly connect them to their community, vested as a participating member. Similarly, a community benefiting from the talents of its youth only increases communities valuing their younger members.
From Preschool Predictions to Eavesdropping Elders
The Motivation Behind Our Mission
“What kind of preschooler doesn’t like to color?”
After a particularly exasperating day of losing the battle of wills to a 5 year old, my son’s Day Care Provider posed that question to me one afternoon. You see, my son, Isaac, thought little of coloring and even less of the math worksheets the provider demanded he do. With amusement I tried to stifle, I listened carefully as the Provider asserted that Isaac would never amount to anything in life unless he started following the rules by doing what he was told.
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
The Road Ahead
Photo Perspectives long-term goals include steadily increasing the number of sustainable project sites across Maine. Our hope is to build a network of participants who represent all of Maine geographically, culturally, and socio-economically. Much like an extracurricular sports program, Photo Perspectives online learning platform design allows for safe, monitored inter-scholastic cooperation and friendly competition between school sites. Photographers will be able to participate in supervised interactions with peers from across the state in such a manner that they may make new friends, learn from one another, and help sustain the view of how important the arts are to our world.
By purchasing new equipment initially and investing in warranties and maintenance plans, Photo Perspectives allows for a relatively cost effective program once the initial outlay for equipment is funded. Funding consumables, such as photo paper and ink, along with the modest stipend that we pay our instructors should be sustainable based on general yearly fundraising activities. We plan to eventually extend our programs to homeschoolers (they can currently participate, of course, as part of the school district within which their home is located) and non-school based youth groups.
Recent Examples of Participating Photographers' Work
Teaching students to slow down to look at the world through different perspectives is important to me. … some of the most amazing wonders of life are only discovered when you’re laying on your stomach. ~ Elaine DesPres
What happens when you have a teacher who walks this walk, and talks this talk? You get young photographers who respond with things like these.
Thank you to the Freeport Middle School Photographers for making my evening.
#photoperspectivesfreeport
CALL FOR QUOTES - Photo Perspectives is seeking to build a database of awesome quotes to inspire associated photographers to conceive, capture and create imagery to go with the quote. Please respond and share this post and encourage your friends to list their own favorites with the hashtag #photoperspectivesquotes or at Photo Perspectives. Just the text of the quote and its "author" is all we need.
#photoperspectivesquotes
Our Middle School Photographers are back on the path to explore their world and share their experiences so we may all, look, learn, and see. We are still trying to raise money to fund a second site at the Indian Island School. Any donation is helpful and are tax deductible. This image was taken by one of our most talented people photographers. #photoperspectivesfreeport
Photo Perspectives is so very thankful to The WC and EJ Thornton Foundation for their generous donation which brings us one step closer to adding the above middle school site in the Fall 2023. The Native American graphic is the school logo
National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson reportedly once said “If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.” One of our Freeport Middle School Photographers uploaded this image of hers a few hours ago. ... This one cries out for caption suggestions #photoperspectivesfreeport
An image from one of the newest members of Photo Perspectives Freeport Middle School .... I added the quote for all the amazing teachers who have helped light my way over the years - and to those who continue to do so ... #photoperspectivesfreeport #photoperspectivesfreeport
Donors Make the Difference
We are so very thankful for the gnerous support of our Corporate and Foundation Sponsors
