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Photographic Memory has a beginning foundation level and a business level. When students start in the Photographic Memory Foundation level they learn to use a 35mm manual camera, develop black & white film and enlarge their black and white photographs. During the course of this instruction they photograph outside of class creating their own personal portfolios. When students finish their Foundation level requirements and show commitment they can then join the Photographic Memory Business level as an assistant.
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Photographic Memory, or Photo Mem, is a unique program in which Rhode Island's underserved youth learn the craft of photography while gaining real-world experience by working as an apprentice to a professional photgrapher. 
Since our inception in 2001, two of our students have been awarded full scholarships to 
 Gaby Mollinedo(Current RISD Sophomore, Photo Mem student 2003-2004) Photographic Memory had a direct impact on where I am now. If I didn't get the training I got in Photo Mem I don't think I would have gotten into Rhode Island School of Design. My whole portfolio was photography. I like looking at things that are not neccesarily pretty to a lot of people. Like going to the Steel Yard, I would be taking pictures of rusty things and my friends would be like "what are you doing, why are you taking a picture of that"? The projects in Photo Mem opened me up to experiences like that. I was given the chance to go into the darkroom alone and make mistakes and then do things right and eventually I learned by doing.
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 Alan Martinez(Currently attending CCRI, Photo-Mem student 2003-2005) If I would not have run into Photographic Memory I would never have run into Photography. I believe if you find something you like, run with it and see how far it will go. If I had not found photography I'd probably be locked up or dead or something. I would have done something stupid. When I started photography I stayed away from everything and kept to myself. I didn't go to parties anymore. I could've but I didn't want to, cause I had something better to do. Now I'm in the Warwick campus of the Community College of RI. I hope to transfer to an art school like the Art Institute of Boston or Rhode Island School of Design or UMass Dartmouth. I fell in love with photography when I first saw my pictures being developed. It hit me like, I could do this for the rest of my life. |
It was working in Photographic Memory when I started looking at things visually, when I started composing my photographs and when I started looking at things with a critical eye. Photo Mem is where I got my basis for photography and even, everything I did all throughout my freshman year at RISD. Without Photo Mem I would not have gotten into RISD because my portfolio was made up of stuff that I had done in Photo Mem. I learned about (the mechanics of) photography and then about the kind of images I wanted to take. I am still working with the idea of one image I took in Photo Mem. I just reproduced that image 20 times. |
No two days are ever the same [in this program]. In Photographic Memory I learned to pay attention to the details in a photograph. I learned how to use composition to bring out the subject. When shooting head shots ( professional business portraits) at Bank RI, I learned that it takes a long time to take a good portrait. The communication between the photographer and the subject is important to make the subject feel comfortable. The communication between the assistant and the photographer is important to share lighting ideas and to create a faster work-flow when editing images.
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