The Ennis Beley Project helps kids piece together their worlds through photography.
By:Josh Appelbaum
Olympus and Fujifilm cameras hang from the necks of Essence and Giselle Scott, protected by padded nylon and lycra cases.
Essence, 14, and Giselle, 11, know the power of freezing time and capturing it for posterity, and take photographs as often as they can, given how much film they have for their 35 mm point-and-shoot cameras. The sisters document their surroundings: a pick-up game of basketball, a man posing in front of his car or a close-up of poppy flowers in soft focus.
For Giselle, who goes by "Gigi" and exhibits a guarded shyness, her pictures aren’t "fine art photography," but include the people and objects that stand out to her in daily life.
Under the direction of fine art and commercial photographer William Vandever, an adjunct photography instructor at the Lawrenceville School who runs the Ennis Beley Project, Gigi learns about photo composition and works in the school’s darkroom to enlarge and print her own work.
Through trial and error, snapping off 10 or more rolls over the course of the month-long program, Gigi and her seven peers develop their own "eye" and in each, a unique style emerges.
The Ennis Beley Project is run by Young Audiences, based in West Windsor, which "serves the underserved" by working with professional artists to develop out-of-school arts programs.
The project is one of Young Audience’s most successful programs, and provides an introductory course in fine art photography for area youth ages 10 to 15. Young Audiences holds the course for students served by Lawrence-based HomeFront, which helps homeless people in Mercer County transition to temporary or permanent housing.
The Ennis Beley Project is named for a gifted 15-year-old photographer from South Central Los Angeles, whose promising career was extinguished when he was killed in a gang-related shooting in 1996.
Young Audiences has been working with HomeFront since 1998 to bring the project to Mercer County youth. The Lawrenceville School has been hosting the four-week summer program since 1998.
Myself, My Camera, My World, an exhibit of about 40 photographs by burgeoning photographers Robert Wiggs, Tyrik Johnson, Janieca Liggins, Winston McRae, Giselle ("Gigi") Scott, Essence Scott, Esmer Scott and Jaquan Bland, will be on view at the school’s Marguerite and James Hutchins Gallery Nov. 16 to Dec. 14. Despite their youth, Mr. Vandever says the students take the craft seriously, and grow as photographers and individuals over the course of the program.
"This is not a play camp," Mr. Vandever says of the course, which meets in four-hour sessions, four days a week for four weeks. "They know they’re going to learn things, take pictures, work in the darkroom and make prints. It’s camp, but it’s a working camp."
Mr. Vandever has been teaching for Young Audiences since its inception of the Ennis Beley Project in New Jersey, and has no illusions about the challenges both he and the students face.
Mr. Vandever says outside the four weeks he spends with the students each summer, he doesn’t know if they continue taking pictures throughout the year.
Mr. Vandever isn’t sure how significant the project is to the students’ daily lives, given their circumstances. "For the most part, these are kids who don’t have a specific place of residence," he says. "They are usually living in some type of temporary housing… Young Audiences is trying to give them an outlet during the summer."
Classroom conversation is about photography and not their home lives. Mr. Vandever says that comes out with the students’ photographs. "We give them film and tell them to go home and shoot their environment," he says.
Although portraiture and human interest photos are prominent, nature photography is another favorite among this year’s crop of students. Mr. Vandever took the students to sites around Princeton University, Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton and Washington Crossing Historic Park in Pennsylvania.
Tyrik, 13, who has been a part of the Ennis Beley Project for three years, doesn’t take your usual quiet nature shots. One beautifully composed frame shows a serene lake in the background, with fallen trees, errant brush, garbage and other debris in the foreground.
"Tyrik got better throughout the entire summer," Mr. Vandever says. "His composition has gotten better and he really considers his subject matter."
Mr. Vandever says Tyrik, who would go through only about one roll per week by carefully choosing his subjects or landscapes, is a good example of an Ennis Beley veteran. "When the students first start out, they just bang off a roll of film," he says. "They go through tons of it."
But not Octavia Hartwick, an Ennis Beley alumna who worked as Mr. Vandever’s assistant this summer. The 15-year-old, who attended the program for four years, was paid to help the students in the darkroom and out in the field.
Mr. Vandever noticeably beams when he talks about Octavia. She is his protégé. "When Octavia started, she was here," he says, raising his hand about mid-abdomen. "Now she’s taller than me. And really beautiful, very elegant."
Mr. Vandever says her personal appearance matches her work. "She does everything a regular assistant would," he says. "If she wants to come back (as an assistant) it would be great. That’s if she doesn’t take another job."
Coby Green-Rifkin, the communications director for Young Audiences, says Octavia’s exposure to the organization, and to photography, has sparked an interest in social work, a career path Octavia intends to pursue in the future.
"She really enjoyed helping people through the program," Ms. Green-Rifkin says.
For Essence, photography has also opened a window to other art forms, including sketching, poetry and short-form prose. She says in the absence of film or places to develop it she keeps her composition skills sharp by drawing on her folders at school.
Like her photography, which is immediate and provocative in its presentation, Essence says her sketches are mostly unplanned. "I usually just start drawing lines and connect them and color them in," she says.
One of the photos chosen for the exhibit by Essence was a photo she took in a room just outside the darkroom at Lawrenceville School. "I think I needed to finish that roll of film, so I took a picture of Giselle," Essence says.
Essence says she has a rule about how and when to take a photo or not. "As far as timing, if I’m watching a scene I like, I get the camera in focus as fast as I can," Essence says. "If I think there’s a chance it will be blurry I stop, but sometimes you just have to decide to go for it, and sometimes it works."
Mr. Vandever says Essence is a personal mentor to Gigi and her 13-year-old brother Esmer, who also attended last summer’s course.
The three siblings continue their photography work throughout the year, thanks to HomeFront, which is able to provide some film to Ennis Beley students.
But Gigi says it’s hard to find a place to have the pictures developed once they’re shot. "Sometimes we go to Wal-Mart or Target," she says.
Ms. Green-Rifkin says Young Audiences is looking for donors to provide money to process photos taken after the program ends each year.
Mr. Vandever says it is important to encourage the students’ growth all-year-round because of the limited resources in their schools. "A lot of schools (in New Jersey) have gotten rid of their photography programs," he says.
He says the Ennis Beley Project, and photography in general, provides students with something to develop and promote their interests. "It gives them an outlet to be creative," Mr. Vandever says.
Myself, My Camera, My World will be on view at the Marguerite and James Hutchins Gallery, Gruss Center of Visual Arts, Lawrenceville School, 2500 Main St., Lawrence, Nov. 16-Dec. 10. Opening reception: Nov. 16, 6:30-7:30 p.m. For information, call (609) 896-0400. For information about Young Audiences, call (609) 243-9000. On the Web: www.yanj.org. For information about HomeFront, call (609) 989-9417. On the Web: www.homefrontnj.org