The story of the new We Live Here photography exhibition of the Light Catchers Society began with two bullet holes.

A shootout in the neighborhood earlier this year left scars in the walls of The Rec building, the North Gevers Street headquarters of the Eastside nonprofit after-school program. One bullet smashed through two walls and struck the frame of a student photograph still on display from last year’s neighborhood-themed show. 

The incident helped solidify the theme for this year’s version of the annual exhibition, with the group of a dozen Booker T. Washington Elementary School sixth graders participating in the program choosing to focus on gun violence.

“The gun violence in the neighborhood is consistent and it’s been rising, just like it has in most other neighborhoods,” said Francisco Cortés, a photographer and educator who has run the Light Catchers Society as a formal after-school program since 2016.

Students in the program learn to operate digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras, video cameras and sound recording equipment. Then, they apply their skills with community-based research involving social justice issues. Their program year culminates with an annual photography-based public exhibition that also includes video interviews.

From left: Santiago Avi’na holds his image, “A Policeman’s View,” and Raven Williams holds her image, “Assisting the City.” Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio Report

Each year’s We Live Here exhibition engages students to research and reflect on their neighborhood through digital photography and video interviews with residents. Past years’ shows have focused on other issues pertinent to the area, including gentrification and mass incarceration.

Though a dark subject for sixth graders, gun violence has touched the lives of each student or someone they know, Cortés said. 

Together with other Washington Elementary teachers and Charlie and Jen Foltz, directors of The GoodHood neighborhood organization that works with Light Catchers, students arranged interviews with Eastside residents, then recorded videos and made photographic portraits that will be featured in the We Live Here exhibition.

One portrait in the show is of Bernice Roundtree, mother of 18-year-old Charles “Chop” Roundtree who was killed by a police officer in his home in 2018.

From left: Mykayla Torres O’Neil holds her image, “Untitled,” and Santiago Guzman holds his image, “Bloom.” Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio Report

A goal of the We Live Here portraiture project is to change perceptions and humanize the statistics and negative news that gun violence creates, Cortés said.

“It helps change the narrative, or the perception of people of the East Side,” he said. 

Working on the project teaches the students photography and video-making skills and “helps the students build empathy and sympathy for their own neighbors,” Cortés said. “If you understand your neighborhood and your community, you tend to value it more, and tend to not harm the people around you.”

And for Cortés, the Light Catchers mission is personal. “My upbringing is very similar to these kids in this neighborhood,” he said. “So I understand that they need creative outlets. And I understand the traps that are headed their way. … So the earlier they can work on themselves the better.” 

The We Live Here exhibition opens Friday with a free public reception at The Rec from 7-9 p.m. The festive event will feature root beer floats, barbecue and live music at 1212 N. Gevers St.