BFA Photography and Video presents “We The Public: Engagement, Action, and Each Other,” an exhibition of work from the department’s 2024 global contest for high school students.

Giving voice to up-and-coming creative talents in photography and video, “We The Public” showcases a wide range of perspectives that explore the civil and the civic. High school students were asked to submit work considering the questions: What are our hopes, needs, and responsibilities, both individually and collectively? How do we participate in community, caring for each other and our shared resources? And how can we affect change on local, state, national, and global levels?

The resulting submissions were numerous and compelling, with images of groups, both familiar and anonymous to each other or the viewer; images of the street and public spaces, both occupied and vacant; images of collective leisure and sport; and images of accumulated remnants of daily life that suggest multiple layers of histories. In addition to this online exhibition, an in-person exhibition, “We the Public,” was hosted in November, 2024, highlighting printed works and videos by 38 high school students.

“We The Public: Engagement, Action, and Each Other” underscores the BFA Photography and Video department’s commitment to community and one another. This timely exhibition of the next generation of students’ work gives a look into where we currently find ourselves and where we might be headed as individuals of diverse backgrounds and experiences, who, together, constitute the public.

Congratulations to the top prize winner, Karla Armas, from Miami Arts Charter School, age 16, and the two honorable mention winners, Lexi Acevedo from Miami Arts Charter School and Derrian Bolden from George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology. Work by Acevedo and Bolden may be found below.