Zapata’s Young Photographers

Residency • Media

Media teaching artist Oli Rodriguez spent his spring (2017) at Zapata Elementary helping students explore identity, community, and their Back of the Yards neighborhood through photography. Oli’s 1st, 2nd, and 7th grade classes focused on portraits and landscapes.

Seventh graders, pictured here doing portrait work on May 10, discussed community engagement and activism and how empowerment exists in self portraits. To support their exploration, they took a field trip to the Museum of Contemporary Photography on April 25th. Second graders are pictured photographing portraits of one another, capturing personality with backdrops and poses. A collaborative collage of everyone’s work was installed in the school as the residency wrapped up in June.

Photos by Lucas Anti. Check out more photos here.