The table overflows with rows and stacks of 8x10 black-and-white photos, taken by dozens of photographers who seem to each be working in a different style: studio portraiture, on-the-fly street scenes, prints altered by stark white "shadows" added craftily during the development process, candid shots of families marked by a documentarian's unblinking eye, almost abstract compositions of American flags in dusty store windows. Yet despite the myriad styles and aesthetics on display, all the photos have two important things in common: They were all shot in North Baltimore's Hampden neighborhood or in Southwest Baltimore's Poppleton/Hollins neighborhood by photographers who live in those areas, and all of the photographers are between 10 and 14 years old.

The prints represent two years of work from Youthlight, an after-school program started in November 2001 by Marshall Clarke. The 32-year-old Towson native and freelance photographer had already taught basic photography to kids as a tool to promote social justice through the American Friends Service Committee, but he says he wanted to expand that work. A grant from the Open Society Institute provided the funding. His connections as a adult-literacy tutor at the Learning Bank in Southwest Baltimore provided an avenue into working with kids in that neighborhood; the program expanded to include Hampden after Clarke, who often hangs out in the area, says he "always saw kids around, seemingly doing nothing."

Clarke and his assistants (including City Paper contributing photographers Uli Loskot and Frank Klein) handed out inexpensive point-and-shoot cameras to about 25 kids and taught them the basics of photography and darkroom techniques. In addition, Clarke says, they also taught media literacy: "Looking at media critically," he says, "figuring out what questions to ask: Who makes it? What are they trying to sell me, or how are they trying to influence me? What information is missing from the media that they're getting?"

Armed with Clarke and company's instruction, the Youthlight participants "made their own media," Clarke says. The students were set to work brainstorming, designing, and shooting public-service billboards to go up in their neighborhoods with messages ranging from discouraging crime and littering to encouraging young people to work toward their dreams. Clarke has also arranged several Youthlight exhibits, including at community centers in each neighborhood and a show at Remington's Angelfall Studios Gallery opening on Nov. 26.

Just as much as the program might help prepare budding artists for a career, Clarke underscores that Youthlight has more to offer the kids who participate than knowing the difference between an F-stop and a bus stop. "Certain kids have a lot of problems, so they're pulled in a lot of directions," he says. "I think photography gives them a way to focus their attention, give them something to do, but also something to be positive about."

Youthlight has already run through its Open Society grant money, and is continuing at least through the end of the current school year with the help of grants from Time Warner, the Maryland Arts Council (via the Hampden Family Center), and the Baltimore Community Foundation (via the House of Mercy). As witnessed on the following pages, it has already succeeded in creating a striking portrait of Baltimore as seen through unlikely eyes. Clarke says that while the program has made an impact on the lives of the kids involved, the billboards and exhibits have also made an important impression on some key grownups as well.

"In Hampden, I think there's a lot of tension between some of the adults and some of the kids," Clarke says. "Some of the adults think the kids don't do much, they just hang around. At the exhibits I've heard feedback from people saying, 'I can't believe these are kids from Hampden who have done this.' So I think it's on some level helping show the adults what the kids are capable of, and that if you give them something positive to do, they can really step up to the plate and do something."

Baltimore City Paper

812 Park Ave.

Baltimore, MD 21201

(410) 523-2300

Contact CP | Advertise | National Advertising | About Us | Work Here | Staff Directory

All parts of this site Copyright ©2013 Baltimore City Paper.