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PORTRAITS OF TRANSFORMATION

Beyond new skills and college preparation, NYC Salt delivers a photographic platform for students to understand themselves, their community, and how to engage it.

NYC Salt can easily document their process and their near-term outcomes – 100% of Salt graduates earn a high school diploma and are accepted into college. Long-term impact can be more challenging to measure, especially as it evolves beyond photography or education. Collaborating with Bittersweet Monthly contributors, we highlighted the impact that NYC Salt has on its students and alumni beyond the lens.

Project Scope: Story Research & Development, Portraiture, Photo Editing, Reporting & Caption Writing

Publication: NYC Youth, Cameras and a New Way of Seeing • Bittersweet Monthly, September 2019

Organization: NYC Salt

NYC Salt invites high school students into a two-and-a-half-year photography program. 86 percent of students are first-generation Americans and hail from neighborhoods that don't typically get an artistic hearing: Hell's Kitchen and parts of Queens, the Bronx, and Brownsville.

CHALLENGE

How might we demonstrate the breadth of NYC Salt's impact while sharing the depth of individual experiences so the audience can grasp the program's overall vision and effectiveness?

STRATEGY

A three-fold approach: The written story provides program context and deep character dives; the video focuses on the photographic process; the photography broadens the narrative through three visual threads:

  • Portraits and profiles of students

  • Student portfolio images and reflections

  • New York City landscapes from students portfolios

 
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Rami Abouemira “Photography and NYC Salt were totally a gateway ‘drug’ to a better life. Not just a better life, but a better version of me. I think they were the gateway to seeing what else could be out there. They gave me the vision. They gave me
Andrew Morocho "The subway and Lower East Side are both representations of when I got back into photography three years ago. The Delancey station in particular because it’s where I meet local artists for an ongoing portrait series. The MTA in genera
Stella EstrellaIn June, Stella Estrella graduated magna cum laude with a degree in filmmaking. Her father was not present. He was incarcerated in 1993 for an alleged robbery – one she says he did not commit. She was a month old when he went in. "It h
Ayman Siam “I like making things, so I'm going into mechanical engineering. I believe I can somehow combine photography into that. I plan to go into fields that can directly help people and bring new knowledge, like working in satellites, robotics,
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Devin Osorio Devin joined Salt as a young 6th grader with a bend for the creative. Over the past 15 years, he has watched the program evolve, first as a student, then alumni, and now Program Coordinator and Studio Manager for NYC Salt. Devin hails

“Such a beautiful article. It makes me realize how rare it is to see a nonprofit profiled in long-form versus just a few talking points - this allows for nuance and specificity. I appreciate how deep it goes and how different the young people are - both in terms of what they’re grappling with and what they’ve gained from photography. It really allows them to be three-dimensional beings.”

Chitra Aiyar, Kenan Trust Cohort Partner

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