Frequent visitors at the Brookside Museum in Ballston Spa might find a new photography exhibit to be familiar.
It should be, because the work of 40 Ballston Spa High School students was spurred by a similar display shown over a decade ago.
Kathleen Coleman, curator of the museum, said the project was inspired by a similar 2001 exhibit started as an effort to record the village’s history. Coleman coordinated with photography teacher Susan Masto to do the same with this one, and the result should help document some changes in the village over recent years.
“We had done an exhibit 11 years ago with the same class. It’s alook at streetscapes in the village through time. It’s great to work with the school district and have the students’ work on display,” Coleman said.
Coleman first contacted Masto in the spring of 2010 to suggest the project and incorporate many of the areas that were recorded in a photo history more than a decade ago.
“Some of the places that were photographed for both projects include many of the Victorian houses in the village, the Ballston Spa National Bank and the hotel. A majority of the photographs were taken on Milton andFront Streets,” she said.
The students were tasked with not only capturing history, butdoing so with an artistic flare. The students ended up learning more than justa two dimensional representation of their town’s past.
Student Anna Pancoast, a senior, said, “The best part about the project for me was working with film and getting to develop our own film in the dark room that is in our school. It was a lot of fun getting to work hands on developing the photos.”
“I learned a lot about different compositions and working with film,” she continued. “We learned the steps to develop our own film including what chemicals we are to use and in what order and amount to use them in to develop our work. We also learned about our own little town of Ballston Spa. I think it’s so cool that our photographs are now being recorded as a part of the history of our village, I hope that one day someone will see my work and my name and say, ‘So this is how she got started doing photography,’ because in the future I hope to become a professional photographer.”
Pancoast saw the photographs from 2001, and kept them in mind on March 2, opening night, when she and her friends and classmates were viewing the exhibit. She shared her thoughts about the two projects.
“I thought it was so neat to see the photos from a long time agoand how much our little town has changed. I was even comparing the photos to each other with a few friends that were with me at the show. It was so cool to see that we were standing almost in those exact same places as the photographers who took those photos. I couldn’t help but think to myself, ‘What were they thinking when they took these photos?’” she said.
Masto couldn’t be reached, but Pancoast said her teacher was very supportive.
“She has inspired me in many ways. She pushes a lot of us to make our work better than we think we can do. She makes sure we aren’t distracted when working on projects and makes sure we put our full potential into our work,” she said. “I’ve had Mrs. Masto since last year so she knows how passionate I am when it comes to photography and she makes sure to keep my interest when working on projects by making a lot of the projects fun to work on.”
Opening night of the exhibit was part of First Fridays in Ballston Spa, occurring on the first Friday night of each month from 6 to 9 p.m. in the village’s downtown. Washington Street, Front Street and Milton Avenue are host to most of the First Friday’s events. For more information about the photo exhibit, visit brooksidemuseum.org.
