Our Freeport Site Photographers meet once a week afterschool for the in-person portion of their photography experience.  Mrs. DesPres structures meetings to include a brief 5 or 10 minute discussion of a given topic (e.g., elements of design, compositional techniques, technical aspects of using the camera) followed by hands on use of Canon DSLR cameras.  Rumor has it that she has been known to bring in home baked goods and snacks.  

While photo activities range from unstructured to somewhat directed, the unifying theme of all programmatic activities involves encouraging photographers to examine their subject matter from multiple perspectives and points of view.  

Student opportunities to sign out and bring home the 35mm DSLRs will allow for practice and fun outside the classroom setting.  Additionally, students can access online written and video learning supplements through a restricted-access online learning portal built specifically for Freeport participants.  The online portal also allows photographers to their student to post their work, ask questions, and receive feedback from classmates and instructors.  

Selections of each students work are printed and displayed in a hallway gallery existing in the wing leading to the group’s meeting spot.  End of the year exhibitions may include an art show, an outdoor community display, greeting cards or postcards, permanent display on the Photo Perspectives website, and/or a video of student imagery narrated by the students.

Photo Perspectives exists to facilitate a better understanding of our world, and its inhabitants, through the power of photography.  Our vision is an existence where humans value a look, learn. see approach to life.  Most anyone can snap a picture – and that is fine.  A photograph taken with a horizontal orientation from eye level can serve as a wonderful reminder of the moment captured.

A photographer, however, does not look just to take a picture, he or she seeks to create an image.   Photo Perspectives’  methods reinforce how assuming different perspectives impacts what one observes in the world as well as expands one’s options of how to convey the intended message through one’s imagery.  Photographers only benefit from making the phrase “I wonder” a part of everything they do.  “I wonder how things would look if I took the picture while sitting on the ground … standing on a ladder above the subject … moved to the left … moved to the right… got behind the subject … came back later or earlier in the day … used some combination of changes or some entirely different approach.  Without fail,  no two perspectives or vantage points produce the exact same view of the exact same object.  How the photographer chooses to capture the object – what he or she chooses to see  – is still completely his or her choice. 

What the final image represents may be interpreted completely differently by the photographer and any viewer – but that is a strength and not a weakness of photography.  Photographs capture people’s attention much easier than lengthy essays initially.  Photographs represent an opportunity to experience a person, place, or idea that perhaps one has never encountered or about which the viewer knows little.  Alone with one’s thoughts, the viewer may ponder that which is conveyed in private, as a non-participating observer in a group discussion, or as an active member of a larger group of viewers.  The photograph may lead one to think about learning more, think about the validity of one’s beliefs, or think that one’s original point of view remains valid.  The commonality among outcomes –  taking the time to observe and then think before deciding the impact on one’s beliefs

And that is exactly what is meant by our tagline, “Look, Learn, See.”

Student/Community Goals

1. To provide Freeport youth a fun and educational opportunity to explore photography on their own or with peers
2. To provide multiple learning environments such that any middle school-aged youth wishing to learn about photography can do so in a manner consistent with strengths and learning needs
3. To encourage students’ feelings of connection and engagement with the larger Freeport community
4. To provide a safe environment in which students may unlock, explore, and express their own creative potential
5. To promote confidence and self-esteem by publicly displaying their work (to the extent desired) through multiple exhibition formats
6. To provide students professionally printed copies of selections of their work
7. To enhance the larger Freeport community by providing exhibitions and permanent displays of some student work in public locations.
8. To promote a process of examining even the simplest of subjects from multiple perspectives before deciding on a final approach and/or encouraging imaging from multiple angles such that the strengths and weakness of each vantage point can be pondered /discussed later.
9. To teach and model appropriate ways to give and received constructive feedback.

Program/Pilot Goals

1. To develop, implement, evaluate, and refine Photo Perspectives: Freeport  to:
   1. Accomplish the student/community goals outlined above.
   2. Provide a quality, sustainable no/low cost extracurricular program to Freeport youth
   3. Assess general youth interest in an afterschool photography club
   4. Assess community interest and support  
   5. Evaluate feasibility of an online learning system that is secure and trusted by parents, students, and Freeport participants
2. Evaluate financial viability of offering programming on a year to year basis and at different sites
3. Brainstorm possibilities for interscholastic/inter-community opportunities as part of the overall program evaluation process

As Photo Perspectives: Freeport  is a pilot of a program actively being developed and refined, outcome measures will likely evolve with the program.  Initial outcome will be judged mostly qualitatively based on student, parent, school, and community feedback and interest.  

Number of participants in attendance, recurring presence, number of views of online materials, community support judged in terms of corporate sponsorship, individual donations, and number of unique individuals providing feedback or expressing interest are all quantitative measures that will also be analyzed.

Degree of consistency of finalized lessons with the 2022 Maine Learning Results Criteria for the Visual and Media Arts will also be scrutinized.

Photo Perspectives will fund informational graphics, clear plexiglass frames, and professional printing of students work to make a gallery display a reality.

Additional opportunities to exhibit students work may involve, but not be limited to, permanent display on the Photo Perspectives website, a video presentation of the students’ work narrated by the students, an end of the year art show, limited edition photo greeting cards, framed donation of selected works to public buildings in the Freeport Community.

Ultimately, within the next few years, Photo Perspectives hopes to host an exhibition of works done by the various groups involved with us to create an ever growing Maine’s Faces and Places Annual Photo Festival.