BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – Getting the perfect shot of the northern lights can be challenging, but here are some tips that Meteorologist Jacob Morse has learned over the past couple of years of photographing the aurora in North Dakota. He also explains the different shapes/types of the aurora display (such as arcs, bands, pillars, and coronas) and talks about why the northern lights sometimes flicker intensely in the night sky — it all relates back to our magnetic field and how the charged particles ejected from the sun interact with it.

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As the LA community continuously fights gentrification, food insecurity, discrimination, and other issues, many teens struggle to fit in and find their voice. A nonprofit organization in Boyle Heights, Las Fotos Project, amplifies young voices of girls and gender-expansive youth through mentorship and specialized photography classes. 

Located on Cesar Chavez Avenue, the organization seeks to showcase the creativity of young girls’ from communities of color while making their voices heard. 

Composed mainly of volunteers, Las Fotos Project equips girls with the physical, mental, and emotional tools to be able to express themselves through photos. The organization has three focus programs each composed of a group of students, mentors, and a teaching artist.

Youth ages 13-18 are welcome to join the three specialized programs offered without any prior photography or camera experience. Students at Las Fotos are loaned Canon DSLR cameras at the start of each class semester free of charge to borrow for the 14-week program. 

(Photo courtesy of Las Fotos Project)

The three main programs that make up Las Fotos Project are Esta Soy Yo, Digital Promotoras and CEO. Each branch uses a different focus but all programs provide the proper guidance and materials needed by the students.

Esta Soy Yo (This Is Me) focuses on self-exploration through photos and other mixed-media art. Digital Promotoras (Digital Promoters) allows students to utilize photojournalism to identify and bring attention to issues in the surrounding community. The CEO branch is available to those who have been with Las Fotos for more than two semesters as this program gives students leeway on how to use their photography skills in the media industry. 

The many volunteers that teach and guide students in each class are a big part of what makes Las Fotos Project possible. Students and mentors develop close relationships throughout the semester at LFP because they are paired 1:1 or 1:2.

Gabrielle Biasi (she/her) has been a mentor at LFP since spring 2022.

Despite initial doubts about lacking the knowledge to be able to mentor others, Biasi said she quickly grew comfortable in the space. 

“The longer time I spent in the space the more comfortable with my experiences and what I  could bring to the space and that came through community,” Biasi said.

She described having others to relate to in difficult moments. She said being able to relate to other mentors while guiding her mentees in their projects made the space comforting for everyone.

“I felt like I had all this community when I needed it … I’ve gained confidence and relationships that have helped me heal in a lot of ways,” Biasi said. “Being around people that are creating things is very motivating.” 

All programs are overseen by the program manager, Diego Torres (he/she/they). Torres said they applied to the Las Fotos team in 2020 in search of a job that allowed them freedom in a creative environment.

Torres quickly made her way from a mentor to a program director after joining Las Fotos. While their job is to oversee the daily operations of all programs, Torres said they go above and beyond to create a supportive environment.

“I think the Las Fotos project has pushed me to look at photography in a more collaborative way,” Torres said. “Making sure that students are supported, that the mentors feel good, questions have answers to them, making sure that people are fed … I view all of this as my artistic practice.” 

Torres is constantly in the space listening to students, stocking snacks, making jokes, all while overseeing and directing the programs. 

Las Fotos Project strays away from a typical academic environment, giving students creative freedom and needed support.

Emily Bearl (she/her) has been a teaching artist for two semesters at LFP. Bearl said she has more than 20 years of photography experience and wanted to get into teaching, but didn’t have any formal teaching experience.

At LFP, Bearl consistently shares inspiring artists and supports everyone in the class.

“It’s sort of a non-traditional education space,” Bearl said. “There’s a lot of support which is really wonderful.” 

(Photo courtesy of Las Fotos Project)

Bearl leads the class by helping establish a space students can freely express their interest in their projects with guidance. Showcasing work created by artists such as Deana Lawson, Arlene Mejorado and Nan Goldin gives students insight into techniques and personal topics not typically covered in other photo classes. 

Seeing vulnerable artwork created by people who are Black, Indigenous and people of color further establishes acceptance in the space. 

Students say they feel welcomed by the atypical classroom approach and quickly become friends with their peers in the space.

Jade Carrera (she/they), a student who has been with Las Fotos for two semesters said it’s comforting to go from “stressing” at school to “an environment where everyone is so welcoming and sweet.”

Carrera reflected on how taking part in Digital Promotoras helped her establish a deeper connection with her neighbor and how impactful the class was “regardless of experience with the camera.”

Las Fotos goes beyond mentoring youth in photography as the organization is consistently involved and contributing to the community. With many partnerships established over time, Las Fotos has been able to collaborate with organizations such as The Academy Museum, The ArtCenter, Ipsy and more.

(Photo courtesy of Las Fotos Project)

Partnerships are used to the benefit of students and youth in the community as LFP organizes events for their students/alumni outside of the space as well as art workshops open to the public.

Artist talks, award ceremonies, photo walks, and portrait sessions are just some events previously hosted by LFP that are loved by the students and the public. Along with being actively involved with youth, LFP hosts monthly food distributions showing their love for their neighborhood in Boyle Heights. 

Guiding girls and gender-expansive youth through the world of photography, Las Fotos Project is able to make the voices of young people of color heard through their creative expression.

The staff, many volunteers, students, partners and community members that contribute to the organization are able to continue inspiring teens through photo and self-expression. 

Jeremy Cowart held the phone, on speaker, out for him and the rest of his production team to hear. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a problem like that ever happening,” the voice from the phone stated flatly. 

Cowart pursed his lips, but only slightly. In just over six hours, on the massive Nashville studio stage where he currently stood, the photographer would attempt to—before a live audience—create 10,000 unique photo-based self-portrait NFTs.

Each would feature three distinct layers of meticulously-chosen visuals, including prisms and lasers, all flashing rapidly in randomized combinations from multiple lighting sources including the massive, 130-foot LED volume wall looming behind him. 

All of the photos were to be edited instantaneously into eight different styles (each distributed at varying and pre-arranged frequencies) via an app custom-created for this single event by the man on the phone, who was either in Finland or a nearby country (Cowart wasn’t sure). And all of this was supposed to happen in about 20 minutes. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the MacBook Pro tasked with processing that all in real-time was having a hard time keeping up. 

But even that wasn’t the sole concern on Cowart’s mind Tuesday afternoon. The artist planned to be at center of all of these 10,000 photos, in a white bodysuit and mask emblematic of a blank canvas. Every single movement he made during the 20 minutes that those thousands of photos were being taken would impact their appearance and rarity. 

“I have to make sure I stay centered, because even if I’m barely off-center, it doesn’t work,” Cowart told Decrypt in Nashville, hours before his “Auras” event was to take place. “Even if I turn my head or angle my head, those are rarity traits.”

Why was Cowart putting these entirely self-created pressures and restraints on himself? There was no practical need for all of the photos to be taken in 20 minutes, nor for them all to be edited instantly—let alone for this entire, mostly untested process to unfold in front of a live audience in real time.

“I’m drawn to big, scary things, to things that are really hard,” Cowart said, shrugging, when asked why he was doing this. “And this has pushed me to my limits in all kinds of different ways. I don’t know. I don’t know if it will work. I think it will.”

Cowart is used to being on a big stage, metaphorically. He has photographed subjects including Barack Obama, Taylor Swift, and the Kardashians, and his work has been regularly featured in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and Time. Over the course of that career, he has privately experimented with and developed numerous novel photography techniques. “Auras” utilizes many of them, finally showcased to the world in concert.

“This is the culmination of about 10 years of pushing myself in the studio and trying new things,” Cowart said. “Tonight is me revealing all of that for the first time.”

By the late afternoon, the live photo-editing process was still having some problems. So Cowart relented, at least on that one point—the 10,000 photos could be edited in the five minutes following the capturing process, he decided. The audience would still get to see the whole creation process from start to finish, and all in less than 30 minutes. 

All of a sudden, it was time. A little over 150 guests—mostly from the Nashville area, but also from across the country—poured into the studio. 

After opening remarks, Cowart took the stage, his entire body and face covered in white. Brooding classical music boomed from the darkened ceiling as a cacophony of lights, designs, photos, and faces flashed across Cowart’s body to the cheers of the crowd. 

The photos were being taken too quickly for the eye to catch. But on the farther end of the studio’s massive LED wall, a colossal projection of Cowart’s desktop displayed the inflow of raw pictures, about eight per second, each painted with an entirely different combination of images, tones, and light. 

The cumulative resulting effect of the performance, which one attendee later described as unexpectedly emotional, was hypnotic, and—in spite of the extreme degree of overstimulation—soothing in its synchronicity. 

“The way that Jeremy’s art was flashing, sometimes the [music’s] tempo synced up perfectly,” Cristina Spinei, the composer whose work played over the process, told Decrypt. “I was watching it like ‘Oh my god, we couldn’t have planned this.’”

Spinei, whose music combines classical acoustics with electronic elements, also uses NFTs to release her works. At first, the technology seemed like a more efficient way to control her distribution process. But Spinei’s embrace of the blockchain also had some unexpected repercussions. 

“When I first got into Web3, I didn’t realize the capacity that it would have to change my music,” she said. “There’s this really freeing feeling of being released from a genre. That there’s no box an artist has to fit into.”

Watching Cowart bare it all on Tuesday night, the crowd cheering louder and louder as the photo tally steadily ticked towards 10,000, Spinei felt that same liberating spirit of Web3—one focused less on technology, and more on embracing the genuinely weird and new.

“Now there’s a proper place for this work, and an audience interested in something a little bit different,” Spinei said. “Ideas and projects that break down the barriers of what visual art is, of what music is.”

Just before 8pm in Nashville, Cowart achieved his dream: his series of 10,000 photos, all unique, had been flawlessly birthed before a crowd of witnesses. In the aftermath, they came up to congratulate him, to shake his hand, to hug him, to toast him—and, not to miss an opportunity, to get their photos taken by him on the “Auras” stage. 

“Auras” will mint next week on May 9 on OpenSea, with the project created in partnership with the NFT marketplace and digital creator platform Transient Labs. Current holders of Cowart’s previous NFT project, Block Queens, will be given the opportunity to mint an “Auras” NFT for free.

Cowart envisioned “Auras” as a series of profile picture (PFP) NFTs, meaning those that holders typically display on social media to signal connection to a certain (often elite) online community. Some of the most prominent NFT collections to date, including Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, are also series of 10,000 tokenized PFPs.

Some attendees of Cowart’s event last night, however, pushed back against associating “Auras” with such collections.

“People are exploiting Web3 at the moment. It’s a money-printing machine for a lot of people,” Violetta Zironi, a Nashville-based musician who has minted several NFT collections based on her works, told Decrypt. “When [a series] comes from a businessperson who hires artists to slap together some monkey pictures, that’s speculation. That’s not art.”

To Zironi, proof of a project’s artistic merit lies not in the method in which it is distributed, but in the origin of its creation. 

“When there is an artist behind a project, and the idea comes from an artist, and you can see that. That is art,” she said. “This came from Jeremy. This is art.”