Photo Treks 2012

Photo Treks 2012 will focus on The Cultural Landscapes of Maine’s Pulp & Paper Industry. Students and mentors will travel to Unity on the Trekkers’ mobile classroom where they will begin to explore the various impacts—visual, cultural, environmental—of the pulp and paper industry on Maine communities.

The group will learn digital photography skills from a professional artist while exploring the area surrounding pulp and paper plants, and will strengthen their mentoring relationships during outdoor activities, teambuilding games/initiatives and nightly discussions. A culminating gallery opening will be held in a local art gallery sometime after the new year. Students will receive a professional view book that showcases a selection of each participant’s photographs.

Program

Photo Treks offers an expedition for 8th graders that combines the outdoors and the art of photography.  After deciding their itinerary, the students and a professional photographer embark on a 5-day 4-night journey together to a unique landscape in Maine; past programs have focused on the working waterfronts of Midcoast Maine and the woods and native culture of the Grand Lakes Stream Region of Downeast Maine.  Students have then traveled to either Maine Media Workshops  or Unity College where they learn to process their photographs and critique their peers' work.  As the culminating experience, the students present their photographs to the community through a print or digital exhibition.  The purpose of the program is to provide an opportunity for students to learn how to document their experiences and landscapes via digital photography with support from local artists and mentors.