image by Naomi Jahan – North Hollywood HS, 12th Grade

I recently had the great pleasure of sitting on the jury for The Music Center’s Spotlight Awards in Photography. Spotlight is a free scholarship and training in the arts program, which encourages personal and artistic growth, while exploring new possibilities in the arts open to all High School students in Southern California. Britt Salvesen, the Photography Curator from the Los Angeles County Art Museum, Suné Woods, an educator and artist from Cal Arts, Genaro Molina, an award winning Los Angeles Times photographer, and Mario de Lopez, a fine art and commercial photographer joined me in the jurying process.

I didn’t know what to expect from the process of looking at photographs taken by high school students all across Southern California and I certainly wasn’t expecting the profound impact that it would have on me. The first day, the panel of jurors went through projected images, culling the numbers down to fifteen finalists. We met a month later, where those fifteen young and talented photographers with portfolios in hand, shared not only their photographs and journey, but insights into who they were and where they wanted to go as people and as photographers. I was wowed by their intelligence, their desire to seek out photography even when it wasn’t available in their school, and by how self possessed and focused they were.

A week after we met, we gathered again, at LACMA, where Britt Salvesen gave us a guided tour through the new exhibition  See the Light-Photography, Perception, Cognition: The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection, sharing her unique presentation of the exhibition. Opening yesterday, the fifteen photographers were given an exhibition featuring all the Spotlight semifinal artwork and it will run from March 8 to March 29 at The Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena. For more information about The Music Center’s Spotlight program, please visit www.musiccenter.org/spotlight. Today I am sharing the fifteen selected images and in weeks ahead will highlight the Grand Prize Finalists and Honorable in Photography.  Congrats to all.

Adriana Cho – La Canada HS, 11th Grade

Allie Haldeman – Marlborough School, 11th Grade

Angela Francis – Bishop Montgomery HS, 12th Grade

Brian Sohn – North Hollywood HS, 11th Grade

Daisy Faragher – Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA), 11th Grade

Eliza Bird – Marlborough School, 11th Grade

Eliza McDonough – Marlborough School, 12th Grade

Francesca Lugo – Palos Verdes HS, 12th Grade

Hanna Crowley – South Pasadena HS, 11th Grad

Harper Lyon – Agoura HS, 11th Grade

Jack Ross – Oakwood Secondary, 12th Grade

Jiayan Wu – Pacific Academy Irivine, 12th Grade

Joseph Hernandez – Alhambra HS, 12th Grade

Sophia Arriola – South Pasadena HS, 12th Grade