IPE In The Classroom: Visual Communication and Social Change

We have just completed a unique class at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication titled Visual Communication and Social Change. One of my course requirements for the nine student in my class was to engage a practical application of some of the course content from the burgeoning field of Participatory Photography, also known as subject produced photography, photographic empowerment and pluralist photography. Each student documented a subject in their community over the semester and we held frequent reviews of the photographs they were producing. The subjects ranged from an exploration of the neighborhood surrounding USC, sometimes described by students as “the jungle”, to graffitti art, or hole in the wall restaurants. In addition, one student concentrated on Cuban American communities in his hometown in Florida while on spring break and also in LA. Take a look at a sampling of the images from the project. At a minimum, the students learned first hand about participatory photography.

- Jim Hubbard, Adjunct Professor, USC

Photo Project: Megan Baaske

From New York City to San Francisco, cities throughout the United States and the world boast efficient and popular modes of public transportation. Los Angeles is the second largest city in country, and one of the most dispersed geographically, but cannot claim a thriving system of public transit. Despite the presence of buses and even the Metro, most residents of the City of Angels rely on their cars.
The result, of course, is the ever-worsening traffic nightmare. Backed-up freeways are an ever-present problem, and it is not unusual to find congestion at any hour of the day. Commuters may spend as much as two hours driving to and from their work or school. The amount of time and energy devoted to navigating Los Angeles is astounding.
This photography project, then, is about the transportation of Los Angeles. The focus of the work will be on private transportation, since the majority of residents rely on their personal cars to get around. Transportation is well worthy of such study. As any city, but particularly one as large and dispersed as Los Angeles, develops, solutions for transportation assume increasing urgency. Admittedly, the topic is more challenging than documenting the more graphic societal ills of the city. Whether it is homelessness or gang violence, it is much easier to represent those dilemmas through visuals than the abstract, and admittedly dry subject of transportation. Yet what it lacks in severity, the transportation problem makes up for in universality. Everyone in Los Angeles can relate to the frustrations of traveling the cityscape. Finally, I propose this topic because it is a societal problem with which I intimately familiar. I have little knowledge of the homelessness that plagues my city. My attempts to catalogue these ills would unavoidably be from an outsider’s perspective. With transportation, however, my work might be more authentic and sincere, since I regularly grapple with the aggravations of traffic.
My goal is to create a body of work that will compel viewers to look at something as ordinary and commonplace as transportation from a different perspective. I want to force viewers to really think about what it means to travel around Los Angeles, and the realities of spending so much time in transit. My hope is to bring attention to the issue of transportation as a sight of social change.

Photo Project: Emily Van Mourick

With this photo project, it is my goal to give a voice
to those whose stories are often not heard, and
advocate the value of documenting stories that may not
be the front-runners in documentary work. A secondary
goal, one that arose unintentionally, is the
empowerment of the participants in continuing their
own form of documentary work by sharing their stories
through tattoos. I have a camera and they may have an
ink gun, but we both have stories to tell.

Photo Project: Sophia Kokores

For the last four months I have taken photographs of graffiti in East LA, South Central, and Venice Beach, Los Angeles. I chose this subject because I wanted to explore the different meanings of graffiti in a city that both accepts and illegalizes it. I learned to be more hyper-aware of my surroundings as graffiti can be found almost everywhere in this big city. I also learned that graffiti comes in many forms, from religious and political murals, to gang tagging, to artistic expressions. This was truly an eye-opening experience for me and I would encourage everyone to engage in participatory photography to learn, hands-on, about their own communities and express their particular perspectives about it.

Photo Project: Justin Iwata

Amongst the McDonalds, Burger Kings, and Del Tacos that litter every corner of our streets exists a palatable euphoria. Rather than serving a standardized menu, privately owned, hole in the wall, restaurants provide a dining experience that is as unique as it is exhilarating. These restaurants pride themselves on delicious, quality food that cannot be identified by a million dollar commercial or an obnoxious jingle. Rather these restaurants, often ethnic in origin, bring authentic flavors and an excitement to the dining table that cannot be replicated or reproduced by production lines.
Moreover, these restaurants provide unique insight into their communities. Many restaurants have survived for years soley on their reputations and on the patronage of the local population lucky enough to know about their existence. Unfortunately, most consumers overlook these taste Meccas due to their lack of publicity. Social change is always difficult, and more often than not the hardest part is to find a good starting point. I believe that this starting point can be found over a plate of great food. At these restaurants patrons can sit, eat, and enjoy while immersing themselves and taking in foreign cultures.
To narrow the parameters of my project, I will focus only on those restaurants that are 5 years and older and are no more than 15 miles driving distance from USC.

Rebecca Shapiro: Photo Project on St. Francis Center

As a student in Jim’s course Visual Communication and Social Change as well as a mentor for Venice Arts, I have the opportunity to engage in class discussion about participant photography programs and mentor two thirteen year old girls from Downtown Los Angeles while they shoot their documentary project they are completing as students of Venice Arts. I have come to realize that there is a great deal to discuss about photographic empowerment programs- How does a camera empower youth? Are there any consequences to bring in technology which to a certain extent, is unattainable for these girls, and then introduce them to the concept of “this is what you do have, this is what you don’t have”? And of course, what about issues of exploitation? I feel as though these are all questions that do arise from a third party perspective on these programs.

What I have found over the past three months is that many of the issues that we discuss in class about photographic empowerment programs do not even come up when I am actually shooting with Joanna and Monica, the two thirteen year old girls. In fact, they look at the camera as a fun tool they get to engage with, not a piece of technology that is expensive and unattainable. We also don’t even discuss how the camera makes them feel “empowered.” Most of the time, our discussions do not even focus around photography at all. Because I have been Joanna and Monica’s mentor since October, we have developed a trusting relationship over the past few months. I realized how close we had become when they told me two weeks ago that “everyone gets pregnant around 13, 14, and 15 years old.” I was absolutely leveled when this came out of their mouths, not because I am unaware that teen pregnancy is a huge issue in poverty areas, but rather that this conversation came out of the fact that Joanna, Monica and I had developed a true mentor/mentee relationship through photography. That day became more of a sex-education class than a photo lesson. At that moment, we were all participants and we all felt empowered; and it was unclear as to who mentored who at that moment.

I feel that these types of conversations that come out of participant photography programs truly explain how photography can empower youth. The fact that they get to use nice equipment is great, they get to tell their stories and feel like more active agents of their lives is also fantastic. But, I believe that the greatest outcome that I have seen from working with Joanna and Monica has been witnessing the degree to which these girls become more and more self-aware. At least in my case, the camera works as a great ice-breaker, a tool that they use to begin questioning their world, which is then supported by the trusting relationship we developed over the past six-seven months.