Senior Attends Weeklong Photography Intensive

As the recipient of an honorable mention from the National YoungArts Foundation, Vincent Alban ’19 was invited to attend YoungArts New York, an intensive week of interdisciplinary workshops, seminars and master classes with leaders in the field.

YoungArts New York took place from Tuesday, April 23, through Sunday, April 28, and the photography discipline brought together a group of 20 students from 15 states in the Eastern United States. The days were filled with educational activities such as visiting a photographer’s studio, meeting with a photographer for The New Yorker, and even attending a lecture with Pete Souza, the former chief official White House photographer for U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama and the former director of the White House Photography Office. The week-long program also included a photography exhibition at Sotheby’s auction house on Friday, April 26, during which Alban displayed two of his pieces.

“I learned the most I’ve ever learned,” said Alban. Both the educational programming and conversations with fellow photographers in the program expanded his knowledge of his chosen medium and consider new opportunities. “My style of photography is pretty clear cut, but I [left the week] with an interest in other forms of photography and really expanding my work.” Interestingly, Alban noted that he “barely took any photos the whole week. When you gather with other people about photography, you just talk about it.”

After attending YoungArts New York, Alban is particularly excited for his next academic journey: college. Participating in educational programming and having conversations with others who are passionate about photography “really showed me how much I’m going to love college,” said Alban, who will be studying photojournalism at Rochester Institute of Technology in the fall.

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