Photo Club aiming to inspire, educate

Photo by Lloyd King  ACPC members teach students from the San Jacinto Elementary Camera Club photography skills during bimonthly workshops at the school.
Photo by Lloyd King
ACPC members teach students from the San Jacinto Elementary Camera Club photography skills during bimonthly workshops at the school.

By Perla Arellano

News Editor

 

Photography Club members are bringing speakers and events to Amarillo College and the Amarillo community.

Eric Van Marter, ACPC president, said members host two artists each year. Steven Plattner, a photo historian and photographer, is the fall visiting artist and was scheduled to speak at the Amarillo Museum of Art on the Washington Street Campus today. His Farm Security Administration exhibit is on display for a limited time at the AMOA.

Tasha Thorn, ACPC vice president, said Plattner donated the photographs to the AMOA.

Plattner will teach a workshop on documentary photography to photography students Friday.

René West, a photography instructor and one of the advisers for ACPC, said an exhibit of Plattner’s Cuban photographss is on display in the Southern Light Gallery in the Lynn Library on the Washington Street Campus.

The exhibits and presentation at the AMOA are free and open to the public.

West said another artist, Patricia Wakida, will lead a free printmaking workshop at the AMOA from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday. The workshop theme is overcoming adversity.

Van Marter said a big part of ACPC the activities is leading workshops at the San Jacinto Elementary Camera Club.

During the visits, members teach 10 fifth- and fourth-grade students about digital photography.

Thorn said the group bought 10 cameras for use by the students of the Camera Club House.

“Those kids look forward to it every week and are waiting to see what we are going to teach them next,” Thorn said. “It helps to show them we are in college and we are making it.”

At the end of each semester, Van Marter said members create an exhibit for the students to see their work at the school.

“The kids were very excited to see their work on display as opposed to on a PowerPoint document,” Van Marter said.

Next spring semester, ACPC will host the yearly Worldwide Pinhole Day event on the last Sunday in April. During the event on the third floor of Parcells Hall, ACPC members will help others build cameras made from various materials, West said.

“It’s just a really fun event where we get to spread the word of photography to the community,” West said.

Van Marter said the photo labs are open to the public, free of charge, during the event.

“They come make their own cameras, or they can use ones that some people have already made and left,” Thorn said. “They can take pictures of whatever they want and then can develop and keep them.”

Active ACPC members also get a chance to take a trip to Angel Fire the first weekend of spring break.

“In some way, I think it is their reward for all their hard work,” West said.

She said members travel with Brent Cavanaugh, a photography instructor and an ACPC adviser, and stay at a cabin while taking landscape photographs.

“You don’t have to be a photo major to come,” Thorn said. “If you are interested at all about photography it’s a fun thing to do, and you learn a lot.”

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