King School Portrait Project

A collaboration with Alan Cerriteno-Apolonio, Ashmeena Kipp, Chanel Wilson, Dashielle Swain, Pesalili Laulea Jr. , Quebriance Waters, and Semaj Baldwin-Fontenot.

Made with Emily Fitzgerald

2014

In April 2014 Emily Fitzgerald and Gemma-Rose Turnbull instigated the King School Portrait Project with a group of students from King Elementary School in North East Portland, Oregon, who ranged in age from six to fourteen-years-old. The book and in-school installation were the result of a long form conversation about identity and representation. All of the photographic images were authored collectively by the group, in an attempt to represent their wide-ranging discussions in visual form.

The most fascinating part of these interactions was hearing [the students] explain the project to viewers. The language they used indicated the different ways they had interpreted our framework. Predominantly their speeches focused on the action of taking and selecting the photos, but also the simplicity with which they presented the aims; ‘This is a project about who we are.’ It is hard to articulate how important that moment was to the project, except to say that without it the conceptual integrity would have faltered in ways that would have been visible (if not clear).