Baltimore Beat Director of Photography Schaun Champion has taught young people the technique and art of photography at the Youth Art Institute at Morgan State University’s James E. Lewis Museum of Art since 2019. Participants range in age from 11 to 16.
The lockdown stage of the pandemic meant that Champion had to be creative about how she taught — some of her classes were virtual, and when she did see the kids in person, they kept their photography sessions outside.
These photos were taken at Baltimore’s Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory on March 18. The series allows Champion to teach participants how to capture images, but it’s also a meditation on what it means to come out of the lockdown stage of the pandemic.
“I felt like that was a good starting off point for reintegration into society,” she said. “Where are people going to kind of reconnect to nature again and be amongst each other?” (Lisa Snowden)
