Westchester Youth Alliance proudly presents an immersive three-week summer photography workshop inspired by civil rights photographer Gordon Parks. This transformative program builds bridges across diverse communities of faith, race, and identity while teaching practical skills in photography and visual storytelling.
Students will learn to use the camera as a powerful tool for expression, observation, and social change—just as Gordon Parks did throughout his groundbreaking career. Through hands-on instruction and creative exploration, participants will develop technical photography skills while examining important social issues that matter to them most.
By the end of the workshop, each student will create a compelling photo essay featuring three photographs that tell a story focused on a social issue or idea they feel passionate about. These works will be presented during a special showcase at the conclusion of the workshop.
Program Details:
• Dates: Monday, August 10th - Thursday, August 27th, 2026
• Time: 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM Monday-Thursday, Friday being Independent Photography Days
• Location: SUNY Westchester Community College, Valhalla
• Who Can Apply: Teens grades 8-12 interested in photography and social activism
• Application Deadline: June 13th, 2026
Join us for this unique opportunity to develop your creative voice and make a difference through the art of photography!
Meet the Artists:
Barry L. Mason is a Mount Vernon–based abstract artist whose large-scale shaped and sculpted paintings draw on his roots along Maryland's Eastern Shore and a deep connection to his African American ancestry. Growing up in Snow Hill, Mason was shaped by the farmlands, coastal landscapes, and stories of his ancestors — impressions that continue to fuel his work more than 40 years later.
Mason describes himself as a "composer," constructing vibrant, irregularly shaped canvases that break free from traditional rectangular formats. His process layers bold color, dynamic forms, and richly textured surfaces into works that tell stories beyond the conscious. Since the early 1980s, he has sculpted and stretched his canvases and wood frames so that finished pieces appear to float off the wall — a signature element of his practice.
Mason studied at Indiana State University and earned his BFA from The Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., where he exhibited at the White House as a student. He is also an accomplished documentary photographer whose work includes the African Burial Ground National Historic Landmark and placements in hundreds of newspapers nationwide. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries, venues, and museums throughout the region.
Marisa Scheinfeld is a Jewish American photographer and author, born in Brooklyn in 1980 and raised in the Catskills of New York. She earned her B.A. from the University at Albany, SUNY, in 2002 and her MFA from San Diego State University in 2011. Her work explores regional landscapes and the layered histories they hold—both visible and obscured—using photography as a form of preservation.
Her photographs are held in the collections of the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Center for Jewish History, National Yiddish Book Center, Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley, and the Museum of Photographic Arts. Her work has appeared in publications including National Geographic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Forbes, Paper Magazine, Village Voice, the American Historical Association, and American Photography.
In fall 2016, Cornell University Press published her first book, The Borscht Belt: Revisiting the Remains of America’s Jewish Vacationland. In the fall of 2022, she co-founded the Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project, a multi-faceted initiative that celebrates and cements the famed Borscht Belt era via the creation of a large-scale historic marker trail in the Catskills.
She is currently an Adjunct Professor of Photography at SUNY Purchase and is at work on her second book, co-written with her sister, writer Jillian Scheinfeld, forthcoming from Cornell University Press. Drawing on archival research and site-based exploration, the book explores hidden and overlooked histories, vanished communities, utopian experiments, and countercultures in the Catskills and Hudson Valley.