Past

Through the Youth Lens

Date: 
June 2 - July 31, 2009
Location: 
New Orleans, Louisiana

A photography exhibit held in the New Orleans City Hall Rotunda showcasing the work of public school youth in a Critical Exposure program to document the conditions of their schools post-Hurricane Katrina.
 

Through Your Lens: School Facilities Across America

Date: 
October 5-9, 2009
Location: 
Washington, DC

The 21st Century School Fund, Critical Exposure and Healthy Schools Campaign created this photo exhibition in the Rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building to showcase the mostly unseen reality of our nation’s school building conditions. The photos and stories in the exhibit were submitted by students, teachers and community members from California to Maine in response to a call for images and essays showing what’s great and what’s troubling about our nation’s public school buildings.
 

Picture Equality: An Evening of Empowerment Through Photography

Date: 
November 12, 2009
Location: 
Washington, DC

Held during FotoWeek DC, our annual silent auction fundraiser included donated images from professional photographers like Ed Kashi, Ami Vitale, and Pulitzer Prize winners Damon Winter and Patrick Farrell.

5 Years, 5000 Images: A Celebration and Retrospective

Date: 
April 2010
Location: 
Washington, DC

Our annual spring photography exhibit was held at the Edison Place Gallery in downtown DC. A five year retrospective, the exhibit featured over 100 photographs from our youth programs in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Austin, Albuquerque, and Washington, DC, covering youth issues from the "dropout crisis" and school facilities to teen pregnancy and youth homelessness. More than 300 supporters attended the exhibit reception, where former students and organizational partners spoke about their engagement in documentary photography and social change through Critical Exposure.

The Way We See It: Young Photographers Examine, Define, and Change Their World

Date: 
June 18 - September 3, 2010
Location: 
Washington, DC
website: 
http://www.aed.org/ideaexchange/

Sponsored by AED, this photography exhibit in downtown DC featured photographs from Critical Exposure students, as well as youth in the international Finding Voice, Visual Griots, and Photography on Fire programs.

Teen Pregnancy (DC & VA)

Location: 
Washington, DC
Issue: 
Teen Pregnancy
Dates Of Project: 
2007-2008
Partner: 
MELD-Even Start, Alexandria Youth Council, Alexandria Campaign on Adolescent Pregnancy

Critical Exposure has run a number of projects focused on the issue of teen pregnancy. Through the Meld-Even Start program in Washington, DC, we worked with teen parents who documented both the joys and difficulties of being a young parent. They wrote compelling captions, poetry, and journal entries to accompany photographs that gave a firsthand account of the challenges they faced as teen mothers and fathers.

New Orleans

Location: 
New Orleans
Issue: 
School conditions post-Hurricane Katrina
Dates Of Project: 
2008-2010
Partner: 
Fyre Youth Squad, Vietnamese American Young Leaders of New Orleans, Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools

Since February 2008, Critical Exposure has been working with middle and high school youth in New Orleans to document conditions in their schools following Hurricane Katrina. Youth from organizations across the city, including Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools, the Fyre Youth Squad, and Vietnamese American Young Leaders of New Orleans, are working together to ensure there is a strong youth voice in the school rebuilding process.

Pennsylvania

Location: 
Pennsylvania
Issue: 
Fair funding for all public schools
Dates Of Project: 
2007-2008
Partner: 
Education Law Center, Good Schools PA, Youth United for Change, Sto-Rox High School, McKeesport High School

Critical Exposure provided high school students across the state of Pennsylvania with cameras and training to enable them to document the impact of underfunding on their education, in partnership with organizations like Youth United for Change in Philadelphia. The students’ images and writing became a central component of a campaign effort to engage the public around the issue of educational inequity, and to build public and political support for funding reform aimed at closing the tremendous “opportunity gap” that has existed in the state for decades.

School Modernization Campaign (DC)

Location: 
Washington, DC
Issue: 
School Facilities
Dates Of Project: 
2006
Partner: 
Youth Education Alliance, Fix Our Schools, Close Up Foundation, Inner Vision

During the winter of 2005-2006, students from several organizations across the District of Columbia documented the conditions of their school facilities as well as positive aspects of their education.

Students then shared their photographs with DC City Councilmembers as they debated over the School Modernization Financing Act. The legislation, which was approved in March 2006, promises $200 million per year in funding for DC public school facilities, increasing every year to adjust for inflation.

Baltimore

Location: 
Baltimore, MD
Issue: 
School facilities
Dates Of Project: 
2004-2006
Partner: 
Community Law in Action (CLIA), Baltimore Youth Congress, Kids on the Hill, Teen Leaders for Change, Crossroads Middle School, Maryland ACLU, Maryland Education Coalition, Safe and Sound's Youth Ambassadors, Wide Angle Media, Youth Dreamers, Baltimore Algebra Project

Baltimore was the site of Critical Exposure’s first project. In 2004-2005, 75 students took thousands of photographs of conditions in their schools, both positive and negative. More than 2,000 people, including the CEO of Baltimore City Schools, attended exhibits and events featuring students and their photographs. Venues included art galleries, a public library, a local college, and Baltimore City Hall.