Apple today announced the company is partnering with nonprofit organization 100cameras to equip DRW College Prep students with the new iPhone 11. 100cameras is a nonprofit organization that teaches adolescents the tools of photography and the power of self expression through visual storytelling.
The move is part of a course on using photography to tell the story of “growing up in Chicago at a time when its history is being erased by things like gun violence and gentrification.” 100cameras is selling the prints of student pictures, with the proceeds going back to local community partner organizations.
“As the residents of a neighborhood in Chicago that is often overlooked, being given the new iPhone that had been released just a few weeks prior felt like a momentous opportunity,” says Angela Popplewell, 100cameras’ co-founder and CEO. Earlier this year, Popplewell, 100cameras’ director of program operations Lydia Billings and the team started contemplating how their curriculum could be adapted to be more forward-thinking, relevant and accessible for young people in the US. For Popplewell and her team, the new iPhone, with its built-in sophisticated camera features, was an important tool.
“To see how excited they were to utilize the camera tools specific to this model uplifted their creativity even more,” Popplewell says. “It was incredible seeing how they chose to utilize the wide-angle and Portrait modes to really capture their point of view and specific expressions.”
“It was amazing to collaborate with 100cameras and the talented and creative students at DRW,” said Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of iPhone Worldwide Product Marketing. “The iPhone 11 camera with all its intuitive capabilities right there in your hand is such a powerful storytelling tool. To see the photos the students captured of the ways they see the world around them was truly inspiring.”
Over the course of the eight-lesson 100cameras program at DRW, students completed a series of photo drills and photo walks with prompts from 100cameras’ crew of volunteers who are professional photographers.
DRW was founded in 2012 as a campus of the Noble Network of Charter Schools, and is one of the top-performing Chicago-area college prep charter public high schools. The school teaches the students using a rigorous math, science and history curriculum, “preparing them to attend and succeed in college and beyond.” 100% of all graduating seniors in the previous year were accepted to college.
