Freelance photographer Uzi Ashkenazi participated in an artist-in-residence program at Washington Middle School in the fall of 2004. He was born in Israel and now works in New York City for the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) editing webcasts for 20/20 and PRIMETIME. He collaborated with Barbi Price, a former Washington Middle School English teacher who now teaches English at Jamestown High School and public speaking at Jamestown Community College. Ashkenazi and Price taught basic camera operations and composition, as well as how to communicate ideas such as loneliness, friendship, chaos, stability, and power. The students recorded ideas in their journals that reflected on their new photographic insights, personalities and friendships, artistic symbols, and collaborative portraits.
The final project included three panoramic images that are now exhibited at Washington Middle School and at Jamestown Community College. Two photographs were part of the student’s collaboration and Uzi helped editing, crop, and collage the final images. The third collage with the large student faces was created by Ashkenazi. This extreme close-up of student faces includes layered writing that appears to be tattoos on their skin. The program was funded and administered by the Weeks Gallery, Jamestown Community College and the Arts Council for Chautauqua County.