The mission of Fresh Eyes Photography Project is to give youth who are locked-up in juvenile detention facilities the tools to help them change the outcome of their lives by teaching them digital photography and giving them the confidence to successfully reintegrate into their communities upon release. A successful reintegration in turn benefits the community by relieving some of the risk  of recidivism. The program offers the youth the confidence that they have a real place in their community or society in general upon their release.

Fresh Eyes achieves success with support from New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) and other generous donations from community members.

It is our belief that through digital photography we will be able to help incarcerated juveniles (ages 11 – 21) to successfully re-enter society. Following are the four strands by which we will achieve this project.

• PRACTICAL: Photography has shifted to a digital medium and the skills of capturing, storing, printing and transmitting images has become increasingly valuable. It is our hope that by enabling incarcerated youngsters to be a part of the technological revolution, we will be both stimulating their interest in an area that might eventually provide them with jobs, and encouraging in them the feeling of being insiders rather than outsiders.

• THERAPEUTIC: Photography slows you down and allows you the think creatively. Making a photograph involves a series of decisions with concrete results. Results are achieved by forcing the photographer to take responsibility for the outcome of what he is capturing. The decisions involved in this outcome (shutter speed, aperture, point-of-view etc) enable the photographer to retrace the steps leading to the desirable and undesirable outcomes and to repeat the former and avoid the latter. These choices are paralleled to personal choices they make in their lives. To make a good photograph, you must think ahead. Similarly to analyze a photograph, you must reflect. As you think about your work, you begin to see patterns in yourself about which you might be aware. As you compare your work to others, you begin to appreciate points of view that may differ from your own. Much of photography requires the cooperation of at least one other person such as an assistant who moves lights, hold scrims or maybe acts as a model for you. Photography as an art and as a craft teaches you to give and accept constructive criticism. The students learn a range of skills extending beyond the craft and into the personal. They work together as a team.

• ETHICAL: Looking at photographs gives rise to questions about the rights of the photographer as well as the rights of the subject. In discussions regarding these rights we segue into discussions on what makes a good photograph. We discuss beauty, art, truth and personal expression.

• COMMUNAL: While photography is not a panacea for damaged lives, it is a portal  to a new understanding of themselves and their relationship to the world. Young photographers learn to accept themselves as accomplished human beings deserving a place in larger community. It offers them a chance to succeed at something without fear of failure. Students leave class thinking about what they will be doing in the next class. The Fresh Eyes Photography instructors believe that photography is a means of learning, communicating and having fun. That is what we wish to pass along.