Students in Introduction to Photographics and Video Storytelling took a field trip to the Upper School’s Horn-Feldman Gallery on Thursday, February 12, to attend an event and workshop with guest artist Mackenzie Calle. The event was organized by middle school visual arts teachers Joe Medina and Heather Trawick, and by upper school photography teacher Alexandra Pacheco-Garcia.
The presenter, Mackenzie Calle, is a documentary photographer and National Geographic Explorer based in Brooklyn. Calle was born and raised in California and later attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she also played volleyball. She has received many prestigious awards and fellowships, such as the World Press Photo for North & Central America, Open Format. In 2022, she was selected as a Magnum Foundation Counter Histories Fellow. Calle is best known for her project, The Gay Space Agency, which is a fictional space agency that reimagines space exploration history as if LGBTQ+ astronauts, scientists, and engineers had always been openly included and celebrated.
The event was put on in collaboration with #YourTurn Photo, an organization founded by members of the Harvard-Westlake visual arts department. The purpose of #YourTurn is to bring artists, educators, and students together using the medium of photography to cross the external physical borders in the city in which they live and identify the borders created within themselves.
The visit included listening to a presentation by Calle, as well as students having the chance to work with the artist herself to explore different types of photography. Students used prisms and colored gels to manipulate light and color in-camera, before any post-production changes. The experience allowed students to learn what it is like to pursue a career in photography and step outside the classroom to engage in contemporary photography in a more immersive and creative way.
Medina said that the department chose to bring in Calle because of the powerful way she uses photography to explore identity, history, and representation. He noted that her projects encourage students to think beyond the surface of an image.
“I thought [her] work was pretty fierce,” Medina said. “The way she imbues her work with a strong sense of personal narrative. That is something [my students] are learning to do in class now. We vividly saw in Mackenzie Calle’s work depth and a powerful connection.”
Medina said he believed that seeing Calle’s work and understanding her process would be an excellent learning experience for all students alike.
“She creates beautiful imagery and collage work that we thought students were going to be able to connect with,” Medina said. “I felt that her work was grounded in reality, and that would resonate with some of my students, whereas some of the artists, their work tends to be so personal that it is challenging for the students to completely understand. That isn’t the case with her.”
Danya Bastawros ’29 said that she enjoyed the presentation and workshop because they demonstrated how photography can communicate powerful stories.
“The most impactful part of the workshop for me was seeing photography through Mackenzie’s eyes,” Bastawros said. “She had very unique experiences in photography, especially the ones with National Geographic.”
Bastawros said the hands-on portion of the workshop was a great opportunity to learn new techniques and styles of photography from Calle.
“I enjoyed working with [the gels and prisms] because they made the photos more creative and unique,” Bastawros said. “The gels changed the mood of my images instantly, and the prisms added cool reflections and depth.”
