Educational Background/Training
- Masters of Regional Planning, Cornell University
- Bachelors of Arts, Sociology, UMBC
- 25 years as a professional photographer
- Conflict Mediation Certification
- Play Facilitator Certification
About the Artist/Ensemble
Jessica has over 15 years of experience as an arts educator, teaching photography to a diverse range of individuals from ages 0 to 88. She has worked in various educational settings, including schools, community centers, camps, and homeless shelters. Since 2009, she has taught youth and adult learners in photography, and since 2014, cell phone photography. Jessica’s teaching approach is adaptive, meeting students where they are on their journey and guiding them to learn the science and art of camera work. Her classes serve as a platform for both experienced photographers and beginners alike to practice, refine their skills, and dive into the mechanics of cameras. Her residencies are known for encouraging students to go beyond their comfort zones, enriching both her students’ skills and her own practice.
Educational Program Description
Jessica’s photography residencies are designed to meet students at their current level of expertise, whether they are seasoned photographers or entirely new to the medium. These programs guide students in developing skills from foundational techniques to advanced composition. Her residency, which spans general photography and specialized cell phone photography, offers students practical insights into both traditional and digital photography. Jessica’s approach is hands-on and adaptive, aiming to take students “five steps further” on their creative journey. By encouraging students to move beyond their comfort zones, students take on new skills and depth within their subjets. her residencies provide a valuable space for growth, creativity, and confidence-building. Her teaching ultimately strengthens her own artistic practice, grounding her in the basics while pushing her to innovate alongside her students.
Examples of her classes
The Body is Good: Fine Art Residency
This residency builds a connection between art, language arts, and health. The critical question of this program is: What is your frame, and how do you fill it? Students use three frames: how they think about their bodies, the structure of writing forms, and the stencils they use to create art pieces. Framing is basic to answering any question since it applies not only to frame-of-mind and frame-of-reference but also to our physical frames. Students learn disability and medical history. They then apply this knowledge to the art prompt that the body is good and the body works as they demonstrate the ability to conceive, plan and execute visual art using their whole body to make artistic choices about filling stencils with color, texture, and meaning.
Students also will learn to match words with images to explore positive body image in a time when we are highly self-critical. Students joyously create artwork and photographs that stand as a reminder that the body is good and that it is always working. They use the way the body works as a reference to create art. They experience how to take a concept from idea to final product while exploring drawing, action art, basic photography and editing skills.
This residency can also include mini lessons on the history of people with disabilities, representation of disability in art/the disability aesthetic and accessibility training.
At every grade level students use their bodies to learn. For some students the tasks of learning are easy, but for others – for most students – there is something very challenging about learning and about being graded constantly. This can lead to self doubt. This residency works with students to build confidence about their body, regardless of how hard tasks are to do. This residency is for any grade and is tailored to the topics and abilities of the class through implementing the principles of universal design for learning and a responsive classroom.
The STEAM of Photography
Students dive deeper into learning the meaning of a second, a fraction, simple to complex sentences through learning how to take good photos videos. As they dive deeper into what they are doing in your classroom, they will learn how to create depth, stop and capture motion, and compose using the math, science and art of creating still and moving images through a lens.. They will then practice by applying these skills to what they are learning in the classroom: by telling visual stories through the lens, exploring math and science concepts, picturing vocabulary words and so much more. Anything the student is studying, we can use the camera to explore it.
The Power of Cell Phone Photography: A Digital Literacy Residency
This digital literacy residency empowers students with a fundamental 21st-century job skill: the art and technique of cell phone photography. Students learn how to capture high-quality photos and videos for storytelling, documentation, and data collection—skills essential in today’s learning environments and professional world. As camera work is now integral to almost every job, this class equips students with practical knowledge on using mobile devices as effective tools for capturing and communicating information visually.
Through hands-on exercises, students explore techniques for framing, lighting, and composition, along with strategies for organizing and presenting their photos and videos to tell compelling stories or document real-world events. By the end of the residency, students gain confidence and proficiency in using cell phones as versatile tools for personal projects and professional tasks, building foundational skills that will benefit their future educational and career opportunities.
In the biography Born A Crime, Trevor Noah details life and key cultural influences. He describes a time he was caught on a video tape and unrecognizable because of the way the camera exposed him. They learn how a camera exposes, why it will reliably underexpose a light scene and overexpose a dark one. Students experiment and practice photographing light and dark objects on white and black backgrounds, learning to change the exposure settings to properly represent these objects. Then they take portraits of each other. Then they create a photo essay and write an artist statement that explains how their cultural identities, why and how they created the photos they included in their essay, and then what is there connection to the book: This residency ends with students presenting their photo essays to each other.
Fees
Audiences
- All Ages
- College/University Students
- Adults