They've got a different point of viewfinder
Some pictures are not worth a thousand words.
A shot of the "Cheers" sign, a Swan Boat beneath a cloudless sky, or an aerial view of Fenway Park neither requires nor accommodates a second thought. They're shorthand for the tourist's Boston and a sore spot for local teens who know both the rough edges and unexpected beauty found in their neighborhoods of Roxbury, Hyde Park, Dorchester, and South Boston.
Tired of the gloss and the glitz of professional postcards, these middle-school students took to the streets two years ago with disposable cameras to capture what they call "our Boston." Last month, their work went public and commercial at two downtown drugstores. As the artists autographed and discussed their work, customers purchased 529 postcards in just three hours. Locals as well as tourists welcomed their Boston.
"This runs through my neighborhood," said Jermaine Carter, 26, of Dorchester, selecting a postcard of an orange trolley. "That's where I grew up. It brings back a lot of memories."
"I've played buckets in Baltimore, Philly, New York," he added. "I've never seen postcards like this. You know, a city has a lot of different faces. We never really get to see them all. We need more of this sort of thing."
Nearby, Kenneth Tulloch Jr. held two postcards in his hand. He explained to a customer the difference between his shot of the Second Church in Codman Square and a generic view of the Boston skyline.
"You can't tell much about a city by just looking at the buildings," said Tulloch, 16, of Hyde Park, pointing to the glossy card first. "See this? This is a look at Dorchester. I have family and friends there. Most people only see it on the news, when there's crime or violence. I want people to see that it's a good place to live."
Gretchen Schneider overheard the remark and beamed.
An architect and educator living in East Boston, she brought her postcard idea to Citizen Schools in the fall of 2005. She thought it would be a "perfect fit" for the after-school program that offers inner-city middle-school students tutoring and introductions to professions ranging from law to medicine to architecture.
"I came up with the idea on a road trip from Boston to New Mexico," said Schneider, 37. "All the postcards I collected along the way failed to convey a real sense of the places I had visited. It was as though the person behind the camera didn't really understand what they were shooting.
"I thought about this in terms of Boston. I love the Sox, but how many shots of Fenway do you need? We need to see the city through the eyes of the young people living it."
Schneider teamed up with another educator, Erika Zekos, 35, and lined up the funding to create the postcard program. The pair hopes that the participants as well as the outlets and audience continue to grow. Money raised by the sale of the 25-cent postcards will support more Citizen Schools programs.
"I remember something one of the students, Marcel White, said when we started this project," recalled Schneider. "It was our first Saturday morning together. He had refused to take photos of his neighborhood, so I asked him why. He said, 'It's not worthy.' Well, here he is two years later with six of his original postcards for sale in the busiest
White's work was among the eight cards that George Hardin had purchased. Hardin, 73, a journalist from Austin, Texas, had stopped by the store with his wife to buy a souvenir magnet, one for their growing collection of cities visited. The postcards delighted him.
"It's remarkable to see Boston through the eyes of these students," said Hardin. "You get a sense of their style, their vision. It's another reminder that talent is everywhere."
CVS's decision to provide a rack for the postcards can be traced to Kenny Wong, a CVS manager who volunteered to teach a workshop on customer service to Citizen Schools students last spring. "These kids have so much ability and potential," said Wong, 33, of Brighton. "When you lend a hand once, you can't wait to do it again."
"When these postcards arrived, I heard repeatedly from some of my employees, 'Oh my God. I know exactly where that is,' " said Wong, who grew up in Allston. "That sort of enthusiasm and pride doesn't happen when you're looking at a shot of the Prudential."
Or the front of the Dorchester District Courthouse. Saequan Clancy stepped away from his fellow artists to recount the circumstances surrounding his photograph of the back of the courthouse.
"Everyone was taking pictures of the front of the building; maybe it was the columns," explained Clancy, 15, of Ashmont. "I wasn't feeling it. So I walked around a bit and then the shadows just jumped out at me."
He removed his postcard from the rack to illustrate his point.
"I love the way the shadows and the light come together," he said. "It's kind of like the living and the dead - well, I wouldn't say colliding. I don't know. I can't explain it verbally. It's all there in one picture. Look."
Visit citizenschools.org/boston/postcards.cfm for more information on Greetings from Our Boston. 