The camera speaks a universal language, and in Maine no place confirms that quite like Maine Media Workshops in Rockport. Students and instructors come from all over the world to take pictures together. No interpretation necessary.
Sujata Khanna lives in New Delhi, India, but since the summer of 2012 has been a Rockport, ME resident and participant in the Professional Certificate Program at the Workshops. Three other students are in the program: Collin Howell, Adam Pitula and Jourdan Selkowitz. We’ve spent many hours together since September, 2012 in Brenton Hamilton’s History of Photography course learning about those who have shaped photography since 1839.

Being a Teenager 2©Sujata Khanna. All Rights Reserved. “They rebel through experimentation, by testing their limits with authority,
but are light-hearted, spirited teenagers.
They are troublemakers according to some, typical teens for others.
Unique for me.”
So, always interested in seeing photographs, and curious about what these four young photographers are up to in their other Certificate Program classes, last November I went to the showing of their fall 2012 documentary studies projects, a course led by Workshops Vice President of Academic Affairs Elizabeth Greenberg. “For many students, that project in the fall is their first experience working on an extended project. A point I emphasize is that the subject of their photographs is not only what is in front of their lens, but rather what is behind the camera – their “concerns” if you will – what it is they are curious about and want to share their unique vision and voice of through their photographs.” she says.
Well. I came away from that humble scene of four projects spread out neatly on re-configured tables in the dining hall kind of unable to blink. I spent a considerable amount of time with the images and their creators, and still feel a little thrill whenever I think of how extraordinary these projects are. These were young, unseasoned photography students? I couldn’t quite believe it.

Sage tastes a beet©Collin Howell. All Rights Reserved
Besides pricing their work, one of the most common concerns I hear from photographers is their inability to edit their own work – honing, winnowing, chucking until only the very best – the A++ images – are left. Sujata told me she had taken almost 2500 photographs and had edited them down to these…EIGHTEEN. Adam told me a similar story (500 taken, 17 shown), as did Collin (3000 taken, 23 shown). (Jourdan wasn’t able to attend the event.)

©Adam Pitula. All Rights Reserved
But it’s not just about numbers, okay? Most important, they are terrific photographs – and that’s always the priority no matter what is cool about process, content or anything else. Second, these groups of photographs told the stories resulting from weeks of work (Adam tells me he spent about 3 days a week over 6 weeks with his subject) and they told them so well – succinctly, and at same time, very completely. Stories with a beginning, a lot of middle, and a wrap up.
Sujata’s project is titled “Being a Teenager” and she focused entirely on a group of rebellious teens who hang out together in the amphitheater behind the Camden Public Library (see first photo at top). Collin’s project developed down a different track than she had originally thought it would, she told me – she was documenting a woman who is resurrecting a 40 acre farm that had long been dormant. But it was 6 yr. old Sage who became the story instead. Collin says “Sage and her siblings are schooled at home and spend many hours of their day outside helping to run the farm. Sage plays and explores with the wonder of a child, but works with the strength and maturity of an adult. What is it like to be this six year old farmer?”

Sage entering the steer’s pen ©Collin Howell. All Rights Reserved
Adam documented the life of a local hermit. He told me he gradually gained Dave’s trust and was let further and further into his life as the weeks went by. “I remember the first time I saw Dave. He was slowly making his way up the small hill from Camden Harbor towards Elm Street. Groups of tourists moving around him quickly, I watched as he took his time seemingly unaware of the people around him. He stuck out visually in comparison to the other people out on the streets that day, almost like he was from a different time. Dave Conray grew up here, this has always been his home and he was not out of place in the least. Yet he has become somewhat of a stranger in his own habitat. He lives on the outskirts, and spends his days in the heart of town. Just beyond the gaze of society, he occupies the spaces in between.”

©Adam Pitula. All Rights Reserved
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Now, just to make things even more interesting, I’m including a couple of photos from Sujata’s winter project – 3515 images taken, 7 selected – and the group of 7 images is perfection – but that perfection you’re not going to see with me isolating these two out of the pack*. She questions, “whether we are aware of the amount we consume, whether we are mindful of the volume of material we throw away that can be reused – are we conscious of the footprint we are creating on the earth?”

Our Footprint 2©Sujata Khanna. All Rights Reserved

Our Footprint 1©Sujata Khanna. All Rights Reserve
And finally, you too, can see the newest work of these students: right now at Zoot coffee shop in Camden Sujata is showing 11 (mostly Portland) photographs taken for a social landscape project in their Visions & Themes class led by Brenton Hamilton. As well, the class will be showing their work in Rockport at the MMW Gallery opening May 30, and at PhoPa Gallery in Portland opening June 12. They deserve your attention.
*But MMW needs to create a link online so these projects can be seen in their entirety. It’s how they were meant to be viewed and I want to get them in front of more people and share their success.

Portland, Monument Square©Sujata Khanna. All Rights Reserved
Elizabeth Greenberg says it best: “…it was a major achievement for each of them to refine and develop their ideas and connect those ideas to how they see photographically. There were many “aha” moments.“
It shows.