Snapping Up Images and Turning Them Into Art Pieces
Young Shutterbugs Win Photo Contest

By Julie Rasicot
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, August 16, 2007

Kristen Kisner, 15, looked at a puddle and saw artistic possibilities. A leaky old battery on the ground caught the imagination of 9-year-old Kodjo Alodjinou.

For the judges who named the students as the winners of a photography contest sponsored by the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission, it was their creativity and technical skill in capturing the images that turned them into art.

"I'm just blown away by what these kids are starting to do," said Jim Auerbach, a professional photographer who served as a judge for the contest.

Kristen and Kodjo were two of 12 students between the ages of 9 and 17 who in the spring participated in photography clubs run by the commission at Emory Grove Village and Camp Hill Square, two of the county's public housing communities in Gaithersburg.

More than 60 photos taken by the students are on display through the end of the month in the exhibition "Through My Eyes" in the commission's headquarters in Kensington. Each student chose one photo to enter in the contest; entries were judged on creativity, originality and technical skill.

Kristen's "Clouds in a Puddle" and Kodjo's "Battery Power" were announced as the winners at the commission's monthly meeting two weeks ago. The youths were each given a new digital camera and photo accessories.

For Kristen, winning the contest and the camera has allowed her to pursue a newfound passion for photography that blossomed when she joined the photography club. She's especially proud of her winning entry, a photo of a puddle taken outside Needwood Mansion in Rockville that she manipulated using photo-editing software.

"I thought it was unique," said the rising junior at Col. Zadok Magruder High School in Rockville. "I thought it would be kind of neat if I put the sky in it, so I did."

Kodjo, a rising eighth-grader at Redland Middle School in Rockville, also used software to add color and manipulate his photo of an old battery in the woods to create "Battery Power."

"It looked like the battery was leaking out," he said.

The two winners and the other club members learned how to use digital cameras and photo-editing software during club sessions. The clubs, which were formed in March to teach basic photography skills, were grouped by age: Capture was for teenagers, and Young Eyes was for elementary students, said youth counselor Carrie Buttrey, who organized the weekly and biweekly meetings.

Buttrey said she created Capture as a way to engage the teenage boys who came to the family resource center in the housing complexes, but soon expanded it to girls and formed another club for younger children.

"I like photography," she said. "It's something I'm interested in, and they don't have access to. I thought it would be something fun to expose them to."

Using five cameras owned by the commission, basic instruction provided by Ritz Camera and library books to study composition, the students took field trips to places such as Needwood Mansion, Glen Echo Park and Black Rock Mill in Seneca Creek State Park.

"We would just take pictures everywhere we went," Buttrey said.

Scott Minton, the commission's executive director and an avid photographer, donated five more new cameras to the clubs.

"I thought it was a really great idea. It's a chance to learn without really realizing that you're learning," he said, adding that taking and editing photos was also teaching the students about such subjects as chemistry and math.

It was Minton's idea to hold the photo competition, in which one boy and one girl were chosen winners by the panel of six judges. "Anytime you do artwork, you have to have some kind of venue to show it off," he said. "It's an opportunity to get recognized for something you do."

In the exhibition are photos of animals, objects including license plates and a propeller, scenes from the field trips and self-portraits of club members. Using the editing software, students played with color, creating black-and-white images that looked like photo negatives and splashing neon colors across some prints.

As he walked around judging the photos, Auerbach was particularly struck by the composition of Kodjo's "Battery Power."

"This is so far beyond what most people would think of taking a picture of," he said. "There's a kid with talent."

The titles of the photos are as intriguing as the artwork itself. Francis Jackson, 17, who attends an alternative high school in Wheaton, named his still life -- a dust-covered green bottle and old cardboard box -- "Moonshine." Another photo that he took of an old pitchfork leaning in the corner of a cabin was titled "Labor."

"It's turned out to be a real self-esteem builder for these kids," said Susan Krimer Yancy, spokeswoman for the commission. "It's exposed them to a lot more things that they may not have been exposed to."

The Housing Opportunities Commission headquarters is at 10400 Detrick Ave. in Kensington. The photo exhibition will be on display from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays through August.