One of the winning entries of the “Jazz in the Schools” photography competition
Photographer: Missy Gerlach | Graphic Designer: Carlos Ray
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As a Board member of PDX Jazz, the organization that produces the Portland Jazz Festival, I get to do a lot of very cool things. I wrote recently about my opportunity to present a program, “Jazz in the Schools,” to local high school students that combined a short history of jazz with its influence on art, photography, and graphic design.
After seeing classic film of Louis Armstrong and viewing a variety of album and jazz festival photography, art and graphic design, participating photography students went into the Portland community and took original photographs of any subject, person, object or setting that demonstrated their personal vision for jazz. They then collaborated with students from the graphic design class and combined their artistic visions, with each team creating a poster for the Jazz Festival.
The result is 39 outstanding contributions – all created by students who knew little (or nothing) about jazz music, but now do, and who now have an appreciation for its art and history, which is all we can ask for.
The four winning entries (as chosen by a panel of distinguished Board members and artists) are pictured on this page. The entire project is now featured in the window at the Portland City Target store. To see all the entries, I encourage you to visit the page devoted to this project I very proudly created and presented. You can do so by clicking here.
More to come from this project in the future…
Maggie Kresl – photographer
Gunnar Rosenberg – designer
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Maddie Peveto – photographer
Victoria Sanchez – designer
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Sara Stember – photographer and designer
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Some of the participating students and teachers in the inaugural “Jazz in the Schools” competition
The project displayed in the City Target window
