Chris Cearnal

My Story is inspired by the pioneering work of Wendy Ewald and her nonprofit Literacy Through Photography. This gallery includes student work from a series of immersive writing, audio and photography workshops offered at Mt. Scott Learning Center,  Outside In,  New Columbia, and Humboldt Gardens, schools and mixed income housing developments in  Portland,Oregon.

Kids sketch out their dreams in their notebooks and then direct portraits of their future selves. Clutching in a plastic bag, one of a clacking dozen microcassette recorders, students ask their parents and guardians to share the dreams they have for the children's future.

Kids work together in enterprising pods of two or three students to direct and photograph their world. Clicking away with analog medium format plastic cameras and the timeless techniques of sunflare and double exposure, each kid confronts their challenge. Photograph the intangible. 

Parents write letters to their children in response to the children's images.

Lovesha,

Don’t let people hinder you from trying to follow your dreams, and if you fail, you get back up and you start over again.

-Tracye, Lovesha's mother

Isaac

Every night, I go to bed thinking about sports.

-Isaac, Grade 5

Jasmyne

I dream of coming home to a loving place.

-Jasmyne, Grade 6

Jasmyne,

My favorite memories of this neighborhood are of playing with all of the children on my block. My fondest memory is playing kickball on the four corners of my street. We would play that for hours and hours until it got dark. We would play all day during the summer when we weren’t at school.

-Ayasha, Jasmyne's mother

Lovesha,

My dream for you is that you follow the desires of your heart, that you touch the sky, and that you remember to give back to the community that has given to you.

-Tracye, Lovesha's mother

Jasmyne

I want to be a business lady and be my own boss. I think of myself in a business suit running my own fashion shows.

-Jasmyne, Grade 6

Jasmyne,

My dream for you is for you to be a wonderful, caring person who has many successes and who strives to follow whatever your heart desires.

-Ayasha, Jasmyne’s mother

Angeleesha

In my dreams, it’s always the same. I want to become a famous female rapper known for the realness of her rhymes, who wants to change things that are bad. Hip hop keeps my heart beating. My soul is with hip hop.

-Angeleesha, Grade 7

Curtis

When I grow up, I want to be a lawyer.

-Curtis, Grade 6 

Curtis,

Go for your dreams. Don’t stop. Do what you always want to do. Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do it, because you can.

- Myishia, Curtis’ mother

Isaac,

I grew up in the Humboldt neighborhood. My childhood was fun. We used to play football, basketball, and baseball outside. I had a great childhood. It was wonderful here in Portland.

- Enrique, Isaac’s uncle

Anayla,

All of my memories of this neighborhood are good. I’ve lived here for 50 years, and I’ve never been mistreated, nor my children, and I like this neighborhood a lot. It’s a nice part of Portland to live in.

- Ruth Ball, Anayla’s grandmother

Anayla,

I was born in this neighborhood and I’ve been here for 39 years. What I remember most was that when I was growing up, there were lots of children and elderly people. I had a whole bunch of friends that I would walk from one block to another with, and we would all kind of caravan together and play and walk to the park. And then there were the older people. We could go the their houses, and they would give us cookies.

- Sherri, Anayla’s mother