Photos for Slideshow

For my slideshow I went back to East New York to take some more photos and so have had more opportunity to see the children and teenagers in the Groundwork environment. Groundwork has elementary and middle after school programs at three local schools and also their own building for their high schoolers. I visited the high school site, a former Catholic school that has been remodeled but retains much of its old look, from the red bricks to the cross above the front doors. Instead of going to all three elementary and middle schools, I choose the campus where I had spoken with the principal and some students before. The principal had arranged for me to meet a couple of six graders and three fifth graders, and today I saw some of them in their Groundwork clubs. Apart from helping the students with their homework and literacy skills, the non-profit also offers sports and clubs that work on writing a magazine or art or drama. The students all seemed to be enjoying themselves, though some of the teachers did yell to quiet down the younger students, something I don't think it entirely appropriate (based on my work with young children). But apart from that, the kids were generally engrossed in whatever activity they were doing.

As for my picture taking, I've never been much of a photographer and often times I didn't have any idea of what to take pictures of. Today, during the long subway ride over, I mulled over what I wanted to tell with the pictures and had more of a plan. Still, once in the room with the children I had to think of camera angle and how to get authentic shots, since the younglings like to mug for the camera. My main tactic is just to take a lot of photos. In the end I had 60 plus shots, from which I selected maybe five or six useable pictures.