Skyview High School students are honored for positive contributions

If you take a stroll along East Evergreen Boulevard between Reserve and C streets, or browse the shelves on the third, fourth or fifth floors of the Vancouver Community Library, you can’t help but notice the faces. Printed three feet wide and five feet tall, they’re part of a portrait photography series called Inside Out. The subjects are teens from Skyview High School, which emphasizes the values of trust, integrity and excellence. The students, selected for their efforts to improve their school and community, have been designated community builders.

“We’re a caring school. We work toward getting that bond,” said senior Dean Imel, a photographer and filmmaker whose camera of choice for Inside Out was a Nikon D90. Imel and classmates Aaron Baker, Jessica Wu, Mikayla Meadows, Ciara McCormick, Lauryn Campbell and Tessa Dougherty worked with teachers Jenna Biggs and Lydia Brooks and classmate Jonathan Oancea over five months. Skyview alum Samuel Stringer, a veteran photographer, counseled the students on technique. The resulting 105 black-and-white portraits were printed in New York on biodegradable paper before traveling to Vancouver for the exhibition.

Inside Out is an international participatory photography project created by artist JR in 2011. Since then, it has spread to 129 countries to bring messages of identity, hope and change. It reached Skyview in 2015. This is the first year that the school’s Inside Out work has been featured at the Vancouver Community Library.

Inside Out will be on display to the public through June 15, 2018, at 901 C St., Vancouver, WA 98660.