Skyview High art project puts students’ faces in Vancouver library

Some folks just stare you down. But nearly all of these larger-than-life faces look out at Vancouver with love. That’s one way to build community.

Stroll by the downtown library anytime through June 15 to scoop up a little bit of that love as it gazes out from 110 jumbo-sized, black-and-white photo portraits of Skyview High School students that were created by a small group of their peers — photography students hand-picked for the project by teachers Jenna Biggs and Lydia Brooks.

The portraits are fun to survey from the outside, on the corner of Evergreen and C streets, but they’re even more impressive — and intimate — if you go up to the third floor and gawk from the inside.

“Inside Out” happens to be the name of this global art project, which aims to make individual, personal identities into works of people-positive art; this is the fourth time Biggs and her students have participated.

The previous three times, Biggs said, 55 portraits went up at Skyview, first on the exterior of the building, then inside. This time, she summoned the nerve to ask the library to mount the photos downtown — for maximum public exposure — and was rewarded when library staff not only said yes, but asked for the number of portraits to be doubled, making this big exhibit really big — big enough to fill up the library’s vast wall of windows and make a major splash.

It was a delightful and stressful invitation, Biggs laughed during a Thursday project reception at the library that drew dozens of people — photographers, models and proud parents. But student photographers Aaron Baker, Lauryn Campbell, Dean Imel, Mikayla Meadows, Ciara McCormick and Jessica Wu, plus graphic designer Jonathan Oancea, made it all happen, she said. They’re the ones who really managed the project from start to finish, she said.

Guerrilla to global

The global Inside Out Project began in the wake of riots that rocked slums around Paris in 2005; a famed photographer who goes only by “JR” started posting huge portraits of real people — the underrepresented and unemployed, the misunderstood and stereotyped — all over the city. It was an illegal guerrilla tactic that wound up getting the blessing of local authorities. Then it spread around the world.

According to the Inside Out website, 260,000 people in at least in 129 countries have participated so far. Many are in places where displaying public art makes a daring, even dangerous statement about empowering the people; others are trying to bring awareness and dignity to groups who feel unnoticed or disenfranchised — sexual and racial minorities, the disabled and mentally ill, the impoverished and homeless.

Happy and sad

“We needed to come up with a theme. Last year was ‘change makers,’ but this year we wanted to go even bigger,” said Aaron Baker, a Skyview sophomore who has already launched his own photography business. It was only a couple of years ago that Baker got the photo bug: he picked up a video camera but did something wrong and managed to shoot only stills. It was a goof that became a direction, as Baker fell in love with the power to capture telling expressions, to freeze people and moments in time.

He and the other photographers tapped for this project settled on “Community Builders” as this year’s theme. Then, the whole Skyview community was surveyed and 110 students selected as photo subjects. The busy photo sessions took just a few weeks; Baker said it was typical to try to photograph as many as 10 people in 30 minutes. That’s quite a pace.

Smiles were always welcome, said photographer Dean Imel, but nobody wanted to wind up with faked “say-cheese” grimaces; the point was to capture real expressions of real personalities. Baker said he would prompt his subjects with fun or provocative or thoughtful questions, depending on how well he knew them. He asked about embarrassing moments, upcoming hot dates, personal feelings of faith and doubt. “We wanted unique expressions,” he said. “We wanted to capture who they really are.”

Baker heard happy stories and sad admissions, he said. One friend of his even spilled fresh, traumatic news about a family breakup; on Thursday, Baker looked up at one a face in a window and said, “Yes, you can see it.”

The theme “Community Builders” could mean nearly anything, Baker added, from seriously busy extracurricular volunteers to kids who simply make a point of being universally friendly and nice to peers. That may not sound like much, until you consider what a “Hunger Games” life in high school can be.

“I’m just nice to everyone,” said community builder Anna Hunt, a sophomore, as she and her mom stood on the sidewalk, looking up at all the faces.

“They don’t judge, they’re just friendly, helpful people. Not everyone can say that in high school,” said proud mom Stacie Hunt. “It’s amazing to do something like this, that breaks down barriers and celebrates kids.”