This class was born out of a collaboration between photographer Liz Williams and Leslie Rosenberg. They were both interested in how to amplify young’s peoples voices during these socially distressed times. They studied works by Chip Thomas and wanted to give young people, especially BIPOC teens, an opportunity to explore their beliefs through the lens of photography. Liz and Leslie taught their first 10 week class in the Spring of 2021 online with Skill Set, a program of UNCA’s STEAM Studio. The depth of the students’ works around subjects like climate change, racism, homophobia, and the pandemic were eye opening and incredibly inspiring.

A small exhibition of student work was held at Revolve Gallery. Following this class, the class was offered to a small group of students at Berry Temple in the summer of 2021 in person. In this class, they emphasized projections, digital manipulation, and collage around these themes.

we’d love to see this class take place again in a larger format, where we can print large scale murals of students work and wheat paste them on buildings – Chip Thomas style, or project student images in public spaces.