Teen Academy - Photography I and II in Black-and-White: Photography as a Tool for Community Storytelling

Join us for a course reflecting on and documenting the day to day of our communities. Through photography and conversation, students will learn approaches to creating stories about their lives through portraiture, self-portraiture, journaling, and black-and-white photography. Students will learn to make exposures with a manual 35mm film camera, process film, and create prints in ICP’s advanced darkrooms and interpret together what community means to them as individuals, families, friends, and neighbors. Students will think critically about agency, representation, and accessibility in photographic practices and gain tools to build trust within interactions with others. Students will create their own body of work exploring the ways photography can be a tool for storytelling about their lives and communities. The curriculum includes: darkroom time, visual presentations, photographic and writing assignments, discussions, critiques, a guest artist visit, and a field trip. The course will culminate in a final presentation for family and friends to celebrate students’ achievements.

Need-based scholarships are available for all Teen Academy classes. To apply, please visit: https://www.icp.org/school/teen-academy.

Course Level/Prerequisite: Open to all skill levels. No prior photography experience is needed for these foundation courses.

Note: Students will need access to a manual focus SLR film camera in order to complete assignments. If they do not have their own device, a camera can be signed out from ICP. Please reach out to Teen Academy staff at teen_academy@icp.edu after registering if you would like to sign out a camera for the duration of the course.

Program Description: ICP’s Teen Academy program welcomes teenagers ages 14–19 from across the country and around the world to develop their skills as leaders and visual storytellers in a range of in-person and online classes. All curricula are youth-centered and include: photographic and writing assignments, open lab time, visual presentations, discussions, critiques, a guest artist visit, a field trip, and a culminating presentation for family and friends celebrating the students’ achievements.

Fee Breakdown