Marc Chagall, nouns, and love

Marc Chagall inspired the students this week to take pictures of nouns - specifically people, places or things the students love. Chagall is known as an artist that remained happy throughout his career. He believed it was because of love. “Only love interests me, and I am only in contact with things that revolve around love,” he said.

Chagall often equated love with flying.

Marc Chagall, The Walk, 1917

Below, the students photographed all the nouns they love: sky, grass, trees, friends, and the world.

From Tonea and Ericka

From Paul

From Nick, LJ, and Keith

From Michael and Anthony

From Judy, Birdie, and Micala

From Ameer and Ashley

Philippe Halsman and photographs of verbs

Photo class students have started summer session!! The first week we learned about photographer Philippe Halsman. Halsman thought that "When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears." The youth photographed jumps, whispers, runs and all kinds of verbs. Congratulations to Micala who counted almost 50 verbs in the class's images!

Philippe Halsman, Dali Atomicus (1948)

From Eli and Anthony

From Paul

From Nick

From Micala

From Judy

From Estrella

Cameras in the Capital City

The NWI photo programs (Summer Photo Class and Gardner Middle School Children with Incarcerated Parents Program) are having a show at the Creole Gallery, 1218 Turner Street in Old Town Lansing, beginning July 24-August 20. Opening reception is on Friday, July 30 from 6:00-9:00 p.m.

With Love to Mom and Mothers

The youth took pictures for the mother figures in their lives this week. They focused on taking tight, medium and wide photographs to create visual variety. They took pictures they thought their moms would like: lots of flowers and pretty colors. Some of the youth wrote short poems for their mothers.


From Anastacia: "I love you mommy. I love you so much. I love you in my heart. I love my mom very very very very very much."

From Mikayla:

From David:

From Judy: "Roses are red. Violets are blue. I love you mom and these pictures is 4 you. Mom, you look out for me like no one else does that's why I love you."

From Nakia:

From Darius: "My mom is the best and she is so cool. No one can bear her and we all are fools. Love you, mom."

From Eli:

From Paul: "Have a good day. Have a wonderful day. You are funny. I love you."

From Brianna:

From Harley:

Happy Mother's Day, Lansing!