Seeing Ourselves: Photographs of Safe Haven June 5, 2009

In April 2008, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts partnered with Safe Haven Family Shelter to provide an opportunity for cultural enrichment through a community art program offered to its residents. Local photographer Allen Clark and the Frist Center's outreach educators led participants, who ranged in age from three to sixty-five years, in a two-week photography workshop, during which they learned about composition, visual storytelling, and photographic technique. Writing exercises and preliminary drawings helped residents form ideas for images that reflected their thoughts about their lives. On the final day of the workshop, each resident was provided with a Holga 120N camera and invited to capture the compositions they had planned.