How I See It — My Place
Lincoln Acres, National City
Priscilla Aguila, Isabel Barba and Christian Serrano
Bryan Moya and Antonio Rodriguez
Eduardo Alcantar and Guadalupe Alcantar
Christine Plante, Arturo Guzman and Lisa Eribez
Photograph not taken but participated:
Teens: Crystal Alcantar and Deshahay Gunn
Staff: Jose Ocadiz, Jennifer Lawson and Kristina Cazares
Eder Escamilla, Bryan Moya, Priscilla Aguila, Isabel Barba, Christian Serrano and Crystal Alcantar
Eder Escamilla shares some of the photographs while explaining to the teens the importance of lighting and framing.
Isabel Barba, Christian Serrano and Priscilla Aguila
Isabel, Christian and Priscilla are busy writing descriptive text for their photos.
Behind the Scenes
Lincoln Acres community is an unincorporated area of 277 acres bordered on three sides by National City and on the south by Chula Vista. It predominately consists of single-family dwellings on large lots which gives it a rural feeling. There are very few government or business services in the area.
The main areas explored were residential and a few businesses that included a nursery, tortillaria, corner grocery store and cabinet shop. The nursery was a surprise to many. It is a well kept secret and not very noticeable from the street. During one of the photo walks, some of the teens commented on how well a number of the residents cared for their homes. Several of homes had beautiful gardens and statuary that gave each residence a restful appearance.
Priscilla Aguila and Bryan Moya
Priscilla and Bryan are taking pictures in front of a local business.
One goal of this project was to enable teens to discover their community. Since the community is quite small, many of the teens thought they knew their neighborhood. However, looking at it through a camera lens gave them a different perspective. Noticing the beautiful with the unsightly expanded their understanding of the community.
Also, library staff wanted the teens to connect with the Lincoln Acres Library and become library users. Twelve teens participated in the project and of those twelve five of them never used the Lincoln Acres Library. After the project, the library staff reported three of the non-library users volunteered at the library. Other participating teens used the library infrequently but are now using it more often. Library staff’s increased relationship with the teens allowed staff to better serve the community.
Lisa Eribez and Antonio Rodriguez
Lisa is writing her observations of a recent walk and Antonio is creating a file for his photographs.
A major challenge was the recruitment of teens. In house promotion of the project did not attract teens. Two informational meetings were scheduled and no one came. Finally, the customer service manager, José Ocadiz and I met with Susan Mitchell, principal of Granger Junior High, to discuss the project. She spoke to the advisor of the school newspaper for recommendations. The final group of teens was a mixture of Granger Junior High students and Sweetwater High School students.
Antonio Rodriguez, Guadalupe Alcantar, Crystal Alcantar, Bryan Moya, Deshanay Gunn, Christian Serrano and Eder Escamilla
A local photographer, Eder Escamilla, reviews some of the photos saved on the laptop taken while other look.
We met once a week for 1 ½ hours. However, because of other commitments many did not consistently attend. It was during the curatorial process, we realized more time was needed to put the exhibit together. Additional meetings were scheduled but many teens could not come in those additional days to work on the project. The writing process was the most difficult for teens to complete. They were willing to give brief descriptions of their work and nothing more.
Deshanay Gunn and Arturo Guzman
Deshanay and Arturo work hard on the exhibit statement.
Many community members were surprised with the results and commented on the professional quality of the photographs produced by the teens. They were amazed to see differing views of their community. Many did not recognize some of the areas in Lincoln Acres the teens captured. Some expressed their change of attitude toward teens.
Greater community awareness was developed between teens and community members through the photography exhibit. Teens appraising eye captured the essence of the Lincoln Acres community for everyone to consider and explore.
— Christine Plante, Project Director
