Photovoice exhibit: new perspective on Springfield

Tammy Caggiano usually works with troubled children. But when she took a class at the Community College of Vermont on interpersonal and small group communications, she found her inner Ansel Adams.

   

Photo by Len Emery Rep. Robert Forguites, D-Windsor, contemplates one of the amateur photos organized by Project ACTION and Community College of Vermont at The Great Hall Gallery in Springfield. Published May 27, 2016 in the Rutland Herald Photovoice exhibit: new perspective on Springfield By Susan Smallheer SPRINGFIELD — Tammy Caggiano usually works with troubled children. But when she took a class at the Community College of Vermont on interpersonal and small group communications, she found her inner Ansel Adams. Or Diane Arbus. Caggiano was one of more than two dozen local CCV students and Springfield High School students who used smartphones to learn about how they feel about themselves and their community. That assignment produced a photography exhibit, Springfield Photovoice, which opened this week in The Great Hall, with some of the student photographers on hand Tuesday evening to explain what the photos meant to them. The exhibit runs through July. The more than 150 photographs were taken during an eight-month period, and they show both stunning beauty hope, sadness and decay. Caggiano trained her Samsung Galaxy on old mills in Springfield and Bellows Falls. One of her strongest images is of a young woman smoking pot, the smoke from the pipe swirls around her head and obscures her eyes. Caggiano grew up in Westminster, and now lives in Chester. Like many of the photos in the exhibit, they come with captions revealing what the photographer was thinking, “It’s a broken piece of history,” she said. “It’s easy to take photos. For most of these people, these are their first shots.” Caggiano and other student photographers zoomed in on the old Parks & Woolson mill building in downtown Springfield, putting their focus on a building that thousands of Springfield people — including students — drive past every day. There were photos of old Springfield neighborhoods, the Steampunk Festival murals, even manhole covers. Deb Grant, the CCV teacher, said her class worked with Project ACTION, the local group working hard to improve Springfield’s neighborhoods. Stephanie Thompson, the leader of Project ACTION, said that too often, “people are quick to judge, and you miss the beauty.” The photos reveal “what we were really thinking and feeling about our community,” Grant said. The purpose of Photovoice, she said, was to “get more people engaged in the community.” The goal was to involve people who hadn’t been involved before, she said. Of the 25 participants, 18 were Springfield residents and half were younger than the age of 17; 66 percent had lived in Springfield at least five years, with 50 percent living in town for more than 10 years. “They took thousands and thousands of photos,” she said, which spurred a discussion of “civic values.” Photovoice is not unique to Springfield; many communities use the photographic strategy to “provide insight into how they conceptualize their circumstances and hopes for the future,” said Debra Grant, the CCV teacher. The CCV students teamed up with some Springfield High School students who were taking a class at CCV in Springfield — introduction to college study. “My phone takes some really great photos,” Caggiano said.http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20160527/NEWS02/160529581