Vare Middle School teachers Mark Nicolella and Larry Stier knew their Earth Force project was successful as soon as they saw their students’ vacant stares! For these stares blazed right through camera lenses and focused on vacant land around the school’s South Philadelphia neighborhood.
This unique and imaginative investigation was part of the "Neighborhood Visions Project" cosponsored by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, who wanted to include the perspective of youth as part of the process. Towards that end, PHS hired internationally recognized photographer, Tori Read, to work with students from Vare M.S. and Gideon public schools. Denver-based Tori taught the students basic principles of photography, as well as how to have fun with a camera. They took pictures of friends and family, and then set out to capture images of their neighborhood they both liked and disliked, as well as vacant land.
Working from these images, Tori had the students write, draw, and create artistic renderings of their vision of the future— some of which were presented by the students themselves (to loud applause) at the opening of the Visioning Our Future conference at 30th St Station on May 5, 2005.
The project showed photography to be an exciting way to conduct a neighborhood exploration. Tori and her art empowered the students to reach beyond their initial visions, and showed us all the power of a "vacant stare."