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The Liberty Partnerships Program at NYU Metro Center Empowers and Inspires Student Artists with Public Photo Exhibition

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“The camera gave me an incredible freedom. It gave me the ability to parade through the world and look at people and things very, very closely.”-Quote from Carrie Ann Weems, Famed Artist, and Photographer


The Liberty Partnerships Program (LPP) at NYU Metro Center is a comprehensive college and career preparation, and drop-out prevention program. NYU Metro Center’s LPP serves 360 students attending NYC public high schools, providing an array of holistic and dynamic services to meet the needs of the whole student. LPP has been working with students at NYC’s Landmark High School for a total of six years. For the last two years, Landmark students have had the opportunity to take digital photography classes offered by this Liberty Partnerships Program.

Yolanda Fordham, Director of the Liberty Partnerships Program at NYU Metro Center, believed offering the Digital Photography course to young adults would provide high school students with an opportunity to “become engaged in a hands-on elective course as active participants”. Mr. Alon Andrews, NYU LPP staff member agreed and stated “...more conscious, aware of, observant of their surroundings, and generally more visually curious about their environment.” Aside from the development benefits of using photography to further augment the creativity and problem-solving abilities of Landmark High School’s students, Ms. Fordham, herself a former classroom teacher, has also found practical applications for engagement with the teenage participants of the digital photography course. Photography is a captivating skill that requires discipline and purpose, therefore Andrews conceded that “... getting [teenage] students to see the value added [from photography] to them and their lives …” can initially be challenging. The digital camera, with all its options, switches, and settings, can be a tad bit abstract for the high schoolers to consider photography as a method or tool of inquiry. Yolanda Fordham shares “they’re so used to ‘photography’ being [as uncomplicated] as Instagram - like something they’d get positive feedback and praise for. [With the Liberty Partnerships Program at NYU Metro Center, we] like to present photography as a tool for discovery.” 

Instructors with the Liberty Partnerships Program are meticulous in sharing the elements of photography with the high school class. Students are taught to experiment with their digital cameras, learning how to employ composition, intention, light, story, message, emotion, and identity to their photos. LPP’s instructional technique involves having the Landmark students engage in prompt-based photographic assignments. Digital Photography Instructor, Alon Andrews would direct students to take photos using extreme light, to capture images that convey emotion, or offer a narrative based prompt “... to get students to think about [and consider] the versatility of the medium.” The Liberty Partnerships team also shared a variety of artistic images with Landmark students, so that they would have an awareness of varying photography styles, techniques, and methods.

Each of the Landmark High School students who participated in NYU’s Liberty Partnerships Program photography course were tasked with submitting five high quality images that they felt most strongly about. Andrews shared that the purpose of this assignment was to bestow the high school students with a moment to understand what it is they like and observe in their real time environment and realize what their preferences truly are. In an effort to honor and legitimize the work of each of the digital photography class students, NYU LPP Director, Yolanda Fordham, thought of arranging a gallery-like exhibition for them, with “... the hope that [the high school students] begin to appreciate their own sensibilities.”

The Liberty Partnerships Program team successfully organized a public photo exhibition at NYU’s Kimball Hall Lounge. Furnishing the Landmark students with a public-facing show to display their art greatly affirmed the year-long efforts of the high schoolers. Being able to “... take the work outside of the school environment that [students] are so [accustomed to], can make [their art display] feel [that much] more real, [and] more official …” said Yolanda Fordham, Director, Liberty Partnerships Program at NYU Metro Center. This photo exhibition not only affirmed students, but also inspired them as well. Digital Photography Instructor, Alon Andrews, shares the story of one student in particular, who was so inspired by seeing her work shown in the exhibit that she wants to become a photographer. Andrews recognized that this student observed “... an interesting connection between the process of taking [pictures] and her own processing of who she is, and who she wants to be.”

We would like to congratulate all the Landmark High School students who shared their artwork in the Liberty Partnerships Program Photo Exhibition at NYU’s Kimball Hall Lounge. We would also like to thank the educators and adults who encouraged these student artists throughout the creative process.

Liberty Partnerships Program at NYU Metro Center Photography Exhibition Galleries

Photo captures a low angle image of a barren tree, against the backdrop residential area sklyline
Photograph of a young boy with eyebrow slits and orange hair wearing a snazy sweatshirt and backpack. The boy has small hoop earrings and a serious face.
A person from the waist up with orange short hair holding up a bag that has “Twisted Fantasy” written out in gems and a star on the pocket. The person is holding up rock on signs with both hands and is sitting in the subway with army pants on.
Side profile of a young boy with curly black hair wearing a black hoodie with a pitch black ground.
Painting of a black puppy with a gold chain on and sitting on a sidewalk with a sneaker in motion behind it.
Picture of a black puppy with a gold chain on and sitting on a sidewalk with a sneaker in motion behind it.
photograph of five players playing basketball in an outdoor court, four players are in black uniforms and one of the players is dribbling and preparing for a free throw.
Picture of two plastic mannequins in a storefront, one is wearing a pink fur robe and the other is wearing the same design of robe in white and holding a beaded sphere purse. The text “ZCRAVE:” is placed on the window in between the viewer and the mannequins.
Photograph of the back of someone wearing a designed black jacket with many patches of graphic text sewn on, including “BLACK TRANS LIVES MATTER” and “BLACK LIVES MATTER” and a skull patch.
Photograph of the front of an older white man wearing black sunglasses, a black beanie, and a black leather jacket with sequins and patches. The man is looking to his left with his mouth slightly open.
Photograph of the streets of Howard Street in Soho from the middle of the cobblestone street.
Photograph of the Jenga building (slightly to the left of the picture) in Manhattan from the viewpoint of a street in Soho.

Gallery #2

Photograph of purple flowers in the foreground projecting towards the viewer in a pot.
Photograph of purple flowers in the foreground projecting towards the viewer in a pot.
Image captures an older man with a head full of gray hair, sitting in his recliner. He looks directly, if not hesitantly in the lens of the camera.
Photo captures frustrated male teenager. He is standing against the wall, with his back in exasperation.
Photo captures an adolescent child sitting in a love seat in his living room, adjacent to a black, plastic walker. It is unclear with the walker is his, or belongs to another member of the household.
Photo captures a busy storefront window with several items out front. Including light purple, pink, and orange colored deity, adjacent to young anime school girl, and shadowy, animated figure holding up the Wu-Tang Clan symbol. figure holg
This grainy photo taken behind a metal screen, captures female photographer about to take a photo of the whatever is on the other side of the metal gate.
Photo captures the black and white lines that make up a cross walk at the end of street corner. A portion of the cross walk in covered in blueish colored, plastic tile
Photo captures both a male and female student in a high school hallway. Both students are wearing their school uniform pants. The female student is wearing a hooded sweartshirt, with the hood largely covering her head. The male student also wears a zippered hoodie, with the hood off. The make student is also wearing a black face mask.
Photo captures a hooded mail student in shadows, behind metal, diamond gate grating.
Fish eye photograph of a girl with brown hair in a ponytail and black puffer jacket standing outside of a gate in front of church doors
Photograph of a deer behind a chain-link fence in a backyard of green grass and shrubs. Some houses are in the background.

Gallery #3

Photograph of a pitbull puppy with orange eyes on a gray and blue rug with an empty pot of soil in the background.
Picture of the tops of some Japanese maple trees with a landscape of green treetops and mountains in the background of blue skies.
Photograph of some evergreen hedges on an asphalt drive in a suburban neighborhood.
Photograph of Times Square going down Broadway during the daytime with many people.
Photograph of the silhouette of a few building tops with a hazy blue sky and glimpse of the sun on the right.
Photograph of the silhouette of three building tops with a hazy blue sky
Photograph of the top of an apartment building with arches, tree branches on the upper left.
Fish eyes photograph of an empty subway station at 145 street, with the railroad tracks beginning on the lower left and going off into the distance on the upper right of the picture.
Photograph of a sleeping homeless man with gray blanket in the corner of a subway stairwell.
Photograph of buildings in soho with red brick from the middle of the cobblestone street. Young man looking at his phone in the bottom left of picture
Photograph of an EMT worker placing a stretcher back into an ambulance for Mount Sinai on the street.
Photograph of the back of a brown haired girl standing on a stage in front of a large empty audience of wooden chairs in an auditorium.

Gallery #4

Photograph of a fist holding a grip strengthener.
Picture of a blue sky with white clouds over some brick building rooftops. A tall white brick building is on the right and a brown brick building is on the foreground on the left.
Photograph of green leaves and the silhouettes of their branches with a statue of a soldier on a horse on the bottom right.
Photograph of tall green trees in a park, with barely any sky being able to be seen through the leaves of the trees.
Photograph of the tops of some brick apartment buildings with a blue sky in the background.
flash photograph of a someone wearing a black Bad Bunny sweatshirt and a gold necklace with their hand grabbing the front of the t-shirt
phorograph of a girl’s brown left eye
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