Youth Artist Exchange: Looking Inward

Oct 162021

archive : 2021

Youth Artist Exchange: Looking Inward

Photoville Youth Artist Exchanges bring together youth photographers and professional photographers for engaging conversations. This exchange features artists whose work looks inward, creating intimate images that communicate personal identity and illustrate relationships to loved ones and to home.

Presenters: Desarie Francis Destinee Marcion Naomi Sergeant Jahmani Morgan Nakyung Han Jolie Ruben Ricardo Nagaoka

Moderators: Jessica Bal

Location: Online

Presented by:

Supported by:

Photoville Festival 2021 Sessions On-demand recordings are made possible thanks to our partner, PhotoWings.

Photoville Youth Artist Exchanges bring together youth photographers and professional photographers for engaging conversations on Zoom about their visual stories. This exchange features artists whose work looks inward, creating intimate images that communicate personal identity and illustrate relationships to loved ones and to home.

This panel is part of Photoville Education. See the full lineup here.

Presenter Bios

Desarie Francis

My name is Desarie Francis. I am currently a senior at the High school of Art and Design and when it came to selecting images for Photoville I decided to choose from five solo photoshoots I took of myself over the pandemic. Over the pandemic I had to keep up with photography even though I had no access to models or a studio. I decided to become my own model. I ordered all of my needed equipment and created a studio set up in my room. I had studied and learned different techniques to be able to take the images of myself without being behind the camera. Constantly doing this over the pandemic has built up my strength in studio photography and has even helped me start a successful photography business.
Destinee Marcion

Destinee Marcion is currently entering her senior year at Digital Arts and Cinema Technology High School. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, has an Afro-Caribbean background, and her passion for film began at age 13. Beyond studying film at school, Marcion has also participated in Reel Works’ film classes, and the New York University’s Future Filmmakers Program. Additionally, she has also worked as a peer mentor in Reel Works’ Documentary Lab. She hopes to work in the film industry as a producer in the near future.
Naomi Sergeant

Naomi Sergeant is a student of Middle School 35 as well as a graduating senior. Her interest lies in photography, painting, singing, drawing, and many more. Her love and passion for creating stemmed from the age of 3 from doing small performances for her mom or creating outfits for her doll and even more. Besides that, she has partaken in many activities such as the BLM T-shirt Contest for NYC Schools.
Jahmani Morgan

Jahmani Morgan is a Middle School 35 senior who enjoys playing basketball and keeping up with the latest trends in fashion. Black, purple, and blue are his favorite shades. He spends the most of his time on Instagram, Youtube, or playing basketball outside. One thing that keeps him productive and motivated is music. He is also very mature for his age for the fact that some may not be able to say the same.
Nakyung Han

Nakyung is a Deputy Photo Editor for The New York Times, where she’s worked since 2005. She manages the photo teams and oversees photo coverage for the Business and Features desks. Earlier in her NYT career, she had picture editing tours of duty on the Business, Culture, Metro and Science desks. Previously, she was a photo editor for a variety of magazines, including Fortune, New York Magazine and Budget Travel — though her roots can be traced to The Village Voice.
Jolie Ruben

Jolie Ruben has been a photo editor on the Culture desk at The New York Times since 2014. She works primarily on photography for the Times’s film and pop music coverage. Since 2019, she has also overseen the photography for Surfacing, a New York Times visuals-driven series that explores the intersection of art and life. Before the Times, she was a photo editor at SPIN Magazine and Time Out New York.
Ricardo Nagaoka

Ricardo Nagaoka is a Japanese-Latino artist, born and raised in Paraguay and a grandson of Japanese immigrants. He immigrated to Canada with his family and eventually landed in the U.S to study at the Rhode Island School of Design. He lives and works in Portland, OR. Ricardo has had his work published by The New York Times, M le Monde, The British Journal of Photography, and has been commissioned by The New York Times, The New Yorker, TIME, Rolling Stone, California Sunday Magazine, The Atlantic, and VICE.

Moderator Bios

Jessica Bal

Jessica Bal is a documentary artist, educator, and arts organizer passionate about projects that involve interdisciplinary collaboration and reciprocal approaches to storytelling. Bal’s work has been supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation, Magnum Foundation, The Polis Project, and Fledgling Fund, and published in The New York Times, BuzzFeed News, VICE, The Miami Herald, Narratively, and others. She coordinates education programming for Photoville and has taught photography to graduate students as well as middle and high school students in New York City. She also manages the digital archive of photographer Susan Meiselas. She received her master’s degree from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and holds a B.A. in english and art history from Tufts University.

Organizations

Photoville

Photoville is a New York-based non-profit organization that works to promote a wider understanding and increased access to the art of photography and visual storytelling by producing a free annual festival, amplifying impactful narratives, and connecting artists to a wide global audience by activating accessible public spaces via large scale exhibitions.

Proudly devoted to cultivating strategic partnerships and creative collaborations with community spirit, UPI approaches its mission of cultivating a wide, diverse audience for powerful photographic narratives by working closely with visual artists, city agencies, nonprofit organizations and educators worldwide to create new exhibition and public art opportunities that showcase thought-provoking, challenging, and exceptional photography. For more information about Photoville visit, www.photoville.com

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