Top photo: Steve Cagan (left) and Howard Singleton (center) discuss camera functions while Jerome Pleasant (right) and Gary Waterbeck (foreground) listen.
Class participant Gary Waterbeck double checks camera settings prior to taking his first picture on his new camera.
Kevin Cleary "Homeless Grapevine"
reporter readies the laptop computer for use by class participants.
All photos from the 2007 photography program by class participant, Cindy Miller .
In 2007 and 2008 the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless received a grant from ODDC (Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council) for its "Homeless Grapevine" street newspaper photography program.
The course objectives were to: teach a marketable skill to the class participants; raise awareness of homelessness through advocacy photography in venues including public showings and publication and raise funds for NEOCH programs as the result of the sale of the photos. The class participants received 50 percent from the sale of each photo.
Grant money, awarded to the coalition for the photography program, paid for the purchase of a professional quality photo printer, digital cameras with software for each of the class participants (with one to be used by NEOCH), photo print paper, matting and frames. Each graduate of the course received a stipend upon course completion.
Gary (my significant other) and I were among the four people who completed the initial digital photography course in 2007. Noted Cleveland Heights activism/social justice photographer Steve Cagan taught the class through sharing his expertise in activism photography.
Each week we were given an assignment, set loose with our cameras and returned the following week to upload our images into the computer while learning to import and fine tune the images in Photoshop.
Our individual works were published in the "Homeless Grapevine" newspaper; a NEOCH publication that helps homeless and formerly homeless low income individuals earn an honest living as independent vendors.
Not only were our photos published in the "Homeless Grapevine" newspaper and on various pages of the NEOCH website but our photographic works were on display and for sale at the main Phoenix Coffee location on Superior Avenue.
Throughout this blog and the future postings, I will include photos by participants of the 2007 and 2008 "Homeless Grapevine" photography program.
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