NGTC Students Invited to Capture “Dreams of our Grandchildren”
July 12 | Posted by editor | News, Union Tags: North GA Technical College
Blairsville, GA – Project assignments are creative outlets that allow students to explore unique ways of applying the concepts learned in the classroom. At North Georgia Technical College, students in the Photography program have been invited to take part in an unusual project, putting their photojournalism skills to the test for a documentary assignment entitled, “Dreams of our Grandchildren.”
The documentary photography assignment challenges the NGTC students to capture portraits of African Americans, as well as multigenerational and multiracial compositions that contrast imagery of the past, the reality of life today, and aspirations for the future.
NGTC Instructors Jim Loring, Jeff Gulle, and Ginger Moseley will select approximately forty of the most outstanding images to display in the exhibit for the entire month of October. This exhibit is being held in conjunction with Atlanta Celebrates Photography.
The exhibition will be a part of an overall series of programs and events called, “Affrilachia in Words and Images,” which received a 2012 Challenge American Fast-Track grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The grant offers support to small and mid-sized organizations, which extend their reach into underserved populations and provide resources for initiatives that emphasize the potential for community development. North Georgia College and State University is the host institution for the series.
Marie T. Cochran, founder of The Affrilachian Artist Project, was selected to be the guest artist-in-residence. As noted on the Affrilachian Artist Project website, “Black in Appalachia = Affrilachian” … This clever phrase is short enough for a tweet and long enough for a bumper sticker. Yet, the story associated with the phrase is as richly complicated and intriguing as it is tied to issues of race, ethnicity and class in the United States.
Recently, Cochran, who is a Toccoa native, spoke to the NGTC Photography students and they explored the possibilities of settings and situations that would result in a rich portrayal of the essence of our region .
“The way we identify ourselves as Southerners, and even as Americans, today is changing,” says Ms. Cochran. “These exhibitions and events are about a bigger dream that we have for our children and grandchildren, and perhaps an embodiment of what our grandparents dreamed for us.”
For more information on the Affrilachian Artist Project, visit www.affrilachianartistproject.com. For more information on the Photography program of study at North Georgia Technical College, visit www.northgatech.edu.
Photo: NGTC instructors Jeff Gulle, Jim Loring, and Ginger Moseley, stand next to Marie Cochran; the NGTC Photography students fill the stairs of the Visual Tech building on the Clarkesville Campus.
