Student Gallery

From artifacts to portraits and landscapes of the living world, explore student artwork to encourage meaningful conversations in the classroom. Learn how to use the gallery.

Use Image Analysis Activity

Paula Calatayud (age 16)

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

I responded to the following quote by Robin Wall Kimmerer: “Living beings are referred to as subjects, never as objects, and personhood is extended to all who breathe and some who don’t. I greet the silent boulder people with the same respect as I do the talkative chickadees.” I created an Illustration and was specifically inspired by the following phrase from Kimmerer: “personhood is extended to all who breathe and some who don’t.” Inspired by the word extended, I used imagery to extend the roots of a tree so that they surround a pale, green-colored androgynous person whom I created without features. This person could be anyone, creating a direct physical connection between a person and nature through the extension of a form. The plant I chose was a weeping willow. I’ve seen this tree in many places; its form is flowy and helps to show extension since the tree leaves flow downwards. Along with the willow tree, I added a dove perched on a branch to illustrate an animal connection. Doves are symbols of peace and represent unity between the different parts of the natural world.

Charly Scott (age 17)

California, U.S.

In my photograph I wanted to capture the exact feeling I experienced when I began to stray from and question what I was used to. Religion has a big impact on me, yet it is one of the most confusing aspects of my life. I think many other teens can relate to this feeling of hopelessness, questioning the unknown, especially if they live in a religious household. The older we get the more we begin to question what has been taught to us and ingrained into our heads since adolescence. Especially now with the current events happening in the world you begin to wonder, Is someone watching me up there? Can they see all this suffering? But most of all, can anyone up there help me. Is there an anyone or anything at all? This photograph reflects the yearning I have felt for an answer or a sign. I understand this may be controversial to some, but this is what life is like for a teen now. We are given all this knowledge and yet we feel so out of touch with the world and everything we believe in. Every time I look at this rosary I feel a sense of guilt for not being as devoted as most, but there is nothing wrong with questioning the things around us. Questioning life, morals, beliefs, and science is what has made us advance as a species.

Tom Nesti (age 17)

Nantes, France

I have a reverence for nature. It was the season of roses and they were in full bloom. I rode my bike through the woods to a rose garden in my city. I had a feeling of wonder— there were thousands of roses, hundreds of hues, the smell of infinite fragrances, and the humming of innumerable insects. I caught a glimpse of a beautiful rosebush. I set my camera ready, I bent forward, intensely aware of everything around me, and waited for the perfect frame and the perfect moment when an insect would come and stay on my selected flower. A ladybug came. This powerful moment reminded me of the beauty of the symbiosis between all the beings of nature. We are nothing without this connection and link. I am nothing without it.

I know that when inspiration comes to me, I have to capture it and not let it slip. I learned how to recognize when I have inspiration. The film and the Earthrise photo informed me and inspired me to always seek new perspectives when shooting photos.

My beautiful city is important to me. It is where I grew up, where all my loved ones are living, and where I learned photography. I would like my place to be remembered for its beautiful gardens and flowers. I would like my city to be remembered for its commitment to protecting the environment, to protecting the planet, because we only have one—whether it is seen on a galactic scale, like in Earthrise, or on a minuscule scale, like a rose.

Suhayl Wright (age 18)

New Jersey, U.S.

Myles Gaffney (age 17)

California, U.S.

I have been fascinated by plants my entire life and no aspect of their development evokes a greater sense of awe in me than the way in which a newly germinated seedling emerges from the soil. Our family has several large organic gardens spread throughout our property and in large barrels on our rooftop deck. We sow several times a year. I took this macro image earlier this week of a bush bean seedling that grew from a seed I had planted eleven days earlier. In the days following planting, I checked the soil each morning, eager to see whether my seeds would come through for us. After a week with no sign of progress, some doubt crept in. Then, suddenly one day, anxiety turned to elation, as the surface of the soil broke with scores of small seedlings. In this photo, the first true leaves are developing in the center of the plant. The bean seed-shaped cotyledons surround it. They are embryonic leaves that will fall off after a few days, but they provide essential nutrition to the seedling until it can begin to produce energy photosynthetically. The whole process is a thing of wonder.

About fifteen months ago, a ferocious windstorm took down a towering eucalyptus tree in our front yard. Miraculously, no one was hurt, but our family was deeply saddened that a tree that had been growing for many decades, and was older than most of our neighborhood, was gone in seconds. Weeks later, we were still mourning its loss, unsure what to plant in its place, when the Covid pandemic struck. Suddenly, the shelves in stores were bare and it became nearly impossible to find fresh vegetables beyond what we could harvest from our own garden. We looked at the bare space in the yard vacated by the eucalyptus and knew what to do. We built trellises and cages and planted pole beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, and blueberries. We doubled the size of our planted area, and we’ve had enough fresh vegetables throughout the pandemic to share with friends and neighbors. We lost a mighty tree, but we will always honor its memory in our eucalyptus garden. The bean seedling in the image has emerged through soil that is teeming with life—from microscopic organisms to nightcrawler worms. Not a scrap of food waste in our household makes it to the landfill; it is all composted. My worm farm has expanded from one large bin to seven this past year. Thousands of wiggler worms break down the waste and decaying plants into bioavailable nutrients that help each round of crops flourish. I peer into the marvelous world of these creatures each day as I feed them. Our relationship is one of reciprocity in the truest sense. Both the bean seeding and I are grateful for it.

Mayarae Taylor M (age 17)

Colorado, U.S.

Our hearts beat one and the same.

The will of tranquility is finite and still.
You can hear the sounds of energy flowing through the quiet silence.
Despondency has made its way into the lungs of so many, but not you.
You hear the notes playing a song of reverence.
Among the roar of inferno, there is something speaking to you softly.
You bind from root to feet, becoming something greater than what’s around you.
A blueprint of serenity, all by looking at the small things.
You blossom and bud alongside the entity of life.
It tells you of all that has been lost, but also all that is yet to gain.
Warmth becomes you. You become the future.

Eternity is only ever what comes next.

You listen.

Carina Pepene (age 16)

Brasov, Romania

My photo depicts the beauty of the painstaking work behind the creation of the traditional Romanian costume. Worn and woven by women living in the rural area, the traditional Romanian costume is more than a piece of clothing; it connects generations and hundreds of years of history. Each region of Romania has its own particularities. Transylvania (especially Bran) is known for the simplistic white and black, occasionally red, pattern on the traditional blouse, also called the “ie.” Over the ie there is a vest embroidered with colorful beads that often form floral patterns and a thick belt called “brâu.” The woman looking out of the window is my grandma, wearing a 100-year-old ie, complete with other accessories that she got from her mother as a dowry. On her lap she is holding another ie she made when she was younger. “I might have been your age,” she nostalgically told me. My grandma never had a daughter to teach the mastery behind the traditional costume; it used to be one of the most valuable lessons passed down from mother to daughter. The traditional costume reflected the social status, the region, and the event. The ie was often made during sewing bees where locals would interact with each other, turning a simple gathering into a significant social event. When making parts of the national costume, such as the ie, the brâu, and the vest, women were weaving the destinies of future generations.

Monika Łazar (age 17)

Rzeszów, Poland

Plants and living creatures can be our greatest teachers and mentors as soon as we open our hearts and eyes to witness the beauty and the diversity they have created over the millions of years of their existence. They have survived hurricanes, storms, droughts, fires, and floods. Thanks to them, every morning our lungs fill with oxygen, our plates fill with food, and animals’ bodies are given energy. They use that energy to reproduce, pollinate flowers, and spread seeds. Living beings play a crucial part in teaching us how to look out for each other and how to coexist in a world full of atrocity and selfishness.

Plants and animals help us realize that the only way to survive is not to abuse one another, but to focus on mutual flourishing, living in peace with each other and living in the spirit of equality and reciprocity. To listen to the living world with our whole selves means to acknowledge the past and understand our purpose. We should cherish the living world with our hands just as branches of the trees shelter billions of living creatures. Although we may not look alike, we serve the same purpose. We can uphold each other. Understanding that mosses and ferns are just as alive as tigers and sharks allow us to open our minds to notice similarities and kinship between living creatures, which is the most genuine way of listening and discovering the world.

Gabe Marusic (age 16)

Ohio, U.S.

When we think about our planet, we tend to think close-mindedly. We think the Earth is only the home of humans, but it’s the home of all beings. The fish, the birds, the plants, the bugs, and the germs all live on this planet with us. I want others to take a moment and look at their surroundings and really take it in. We tend to get so involved with what separates us from each other that we don’t realize how small we are in the history of this planet.

The Earthrise photograph puts the world in perspective. The life we lead can seem so large, but when you see the Earth all in one photo, you realize how small we are. This small robin in central Cleveland reminded me of this. As I think of how small this bird is in comparison with the rest of the Earth, it would seem almost unseen by most. I will never see that exact bird again, and yet I captured it forever in a photograph. That in itself is very beautiful. The bird is isolated, but the cigarette butts, the peeling concrete mold and flooring, and iron railings show that people have been there.

I want Cleveland to be remembered. In the Shaker Heights area, there are so many trees, rabbits, squirrels, and foxes that live there. Humans tend to dominate and we need to conserve nature for what it is, not what we want. Being trapped inside now from COVID-19 makes me realize just how much animals do in a day. Watching the squirrels is almost exhausting, as they do so much. This planet does not belong to anyone. We’re all renting out space until we’re gone. So while we are here, let’s make the most of it and cherish this big blue beauty of a planet.

Gabe Marusic (age 17)

Ohio, U.S.

Bought and Sold

Reciprocity is a two way road, and yet we have treated our Earth like a one-way highway, one in which we take everything without giving back. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I began to go on more walks as I found being in nature one of the best ways to escape from the hustle and bustle of the world. On one of these walks I found this sign and felt a strange irony in finding it in a forested area and decided to capture the emotion I felt behind it. In my photo, Bought and Sold, I try to capture the idea of how people often find they have the right to buy and sell nature to other people. I find that the harsh black and white film I used captures the raw emotion behind the ideas of this photo, as well as the natural sunset lighting that was used. The sign reads “sale pending,” implying the sale has not even happened yet, and yet the land is still being reserved rather than enjoyed by people. If we as people want to remain on this planet, maintaining a true relationship of reciprocity with the Earth is essential. When we just take from the Earth and never give back, we slowly kill the Earth. I found the following quote from Kimmerer especially relevant, “Birds, bugs, and berries are spoken of with the same respectful grammar as humans are.” It relates to the idea of nature and humans all being interconnected as one rather than being the two separate entities we paint them as. People tend to cut up and sell this planet we all share, but this is not our job. It was simply one we convinced ourselves we had.

Mariangel Calixto Alonso (age 17)

New Jersey, U.S.

We look at flowers, trees, and animals and take pictures of them to capture their beauty. Sometimes we forget the little things like leaves, the texture of the wood on the trees, and the details on the grass and moss. Nature is filled with living organisms that create a cycle of life. Life is all around. Seeing things grow is one of the little things in life we often don't get to appreciate. One plant could be a home for an insect or food to support an insect's cycle. The stories of the moss, the barnacle geese, and the reindeer are something not everyone knows.

Marlene Auer (age 16)

Weimar, Germany

Navigating Progress

We live in a constantly moving and developing world. We have rapidly progressed from gravel to asphalt roads and from maps to complex technological navigation systems. We use the nighttime to work and travel just as commonly as daytime, which is what my photograph reflects. I used a low ISO value, a focal ratio of 6, and a shutter speed of 7 seconds to create this light photography without using Photoshop or any other editing software. The photograph expresses how the world is changing in several ways. One is how nighttime is becoming more important. The photograph is set on a classic motorway to show how we continuously hurry forward in our technological inventions and scientific discoveries worldwide. The white rectangles in the center feature a modern navigation system. It is blank because we do not know for sure where our future will take us. The scribbly looking lines signify the difficulties of our forward progressing and changing lifestyle.

Although we may not know where our future will take us, we can try to push it in specific directions. We can program a destination to an environmentally friendly, planet-preserving future. We used to have to rely on our biological orientation and do a lot of planning to get somewhere. However nowadays, we all rely on what computers calculate for us, which gives us more time to spend with our family and friends and connect on a social level. It is up to us how we spend this free time. Our changing lifestyle is also connected to our constantly increasing use of the internet. A navigation system, online or offline, connects people and places because we use it to travel to other places and meet new people. Even though this picture is taken on a mid-German motorway, we can find similar scenarios all around the world. Everyone uses roads and some means of transportation.

The knowledge and ideas contributing to technological improvements and scientific inventions have been passed down from generation to generation over centuries. Every generation continues to offer something different and unique in all areas of life, especially in art, music, technology, and psychology. This is how we manage to achieve progress in our society. We can all remember the stories our grandparents told us about the past and the boredom we felt while traveling in a car as a small child, although everything was moving by so quickly. Motorways are an essential aspect of our lives today. We use them to travel and to transport food and other economic goods.

I think they should be a building block for future generation’s lifestyles. This photograph represents how our lifestyles have progressed quickly until now and will continue to advance rapidly in the future. We have to stop and freeze time for a second with a picture like this so we can look back later and see the different steps in our progress.

Maya Hernandez (age 16)

Florida, U.S.

“Do we treat the earth as if ki is our relative—as if the earth were animated by being—with reciprocity and reverence, or as stuff that we may treat with or without respect, as we choose?”— Robin Wall Kimmerer

Mirrors reflect the truth, the truest version of yourself. This plain chair set upon the neatly trimmed grass with a slight border of fencing is where we supposedly belong. To sit in that chair is to become the you everyone else knows. However, mirrors reflect the truth. On the inside, we are all more akin to the sprawling trees depicted here. This photograph represents the outsider looking in. We see the chair reserved for us within the parameters of the mirror. The twining, sprawling, wild branches of misdirection, and within that, the smallest glimpse of the truth: a grim face that almost blends in with the surroundings. With the trees. With nature. Our natural state.

Aidan Hoidal-Bui (age 15)

Massachusetts, U.S.

My Place On This Planet

In April 1975, just as the Vietnam War was nearing its end, my one-year-old mother, her two older brothers, and my grandparents fled Vietnam on one of the last planes to America just before the airport was bombed by the North. We were fortunate that my mom’s uncle was the general of the South Vietnamese police and head of South Vietnam’s CIA. His high rank is the only reason they were allowed to flee by air rather than by sea in wooden boats.

In humanitarian crises, one must flee without possessions. However, there are some artifacts too critical to communities to be left behind. At the start of this photography project, I searched for hours to find a family artifact in our home. My mom shared with me that my grandparents did not have the luxury of packing and preserving family heirlooms; I was devastated. What they did bring was themselves, the clothes on their bodies, and several cherished photographs of my great-great-grandparents. I had such a narrow idea of what an artifact should look like that I didn’t think about the obvious solution to my problem. I realized that my great-great-grandparents’ fragile photographs were my family artifacts, even if they are the only ones we have.

My grandparents’ primary goal was survival, and they brought only the necessities: their children who were alive and photographs of their elders who had passed. Respect for one’s ancestral history is embedded in the DNA of Vietnamese people. At the heart of every Vietnamese household sits an altar framed by ancestors and elders who have passed away. Bowls of fruit and rice are placed in front of the loved ones as offerings of respect and remembrance. The altar table is an essential part of our lives as it connects us to our roots, ensures we never forget where we came from, and honors those who came before us who made our lives possible. This customary arrangement symbolizes and ties together these essential values of Vietnamese culture. I hope to one day preserve this tradition and pass on these artifacts so that future generations will never forget where they came from and who came before them.

I chose to make the smoldering incense the main focus of my photograph because its smokey scent is forever ingrained in my mind. I know I am entering a Vietnamese home when I walk through the door and the first thing I smell is burning incense, indicating that a prayer has just taken place. To be honest, it is not exactly a pleasant smell. It burns my eyes and even makes me choke. But when I smell that distinctive smoke, I am brought back to my childhood and all the times that we traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area to visit our family for Tết, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. I chose to focus on the incense because no matter where I am, when I inhale that strong scent, I think of my great-grandparents on that altar and I am reminded of a country that has deeply shaped who I am today.

Meagen Krige (age 16)

Caledon, South Africa

My artwork is inspired by the vulnerability of animals. All over the world animals are being affected by climate change, poaching, loss of habitat, and destruction of our wonderful ecosystems. Most of these destructive forces happen because of the species called mankind. This photo was taken in South Africa at one of our famous private nature reserves, Klaserie Private Nature Reserve. Unfortunately, this poor rhino called Mandgleve faced a traumatic experience with a poacher about two years ago. In this event he got shot, but thankfully the reserve was there to help treat his wound. He is still alive to this day and is doing very well, thanks to the vets and the nature reserve that helped him, because he could not help himself. I hope one day people can all see how the animals of our planet are suffering.

Paula Calatayud (age 16)

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Mayarae Taylor M (age 17)

Colorado, U.S.

Our hearts beat one and the same.

You listen.

Mariangel Calixto Alonso (age 17)

New Jersey, U.S.

Charly Scott (age 17)

California, U.S.

Carina Pepene (age 16)

Brasov, Romania

Marlene Auer (age 16)

Weimar, Germany

Navigating Progress

Tom Nesti (age 17)

Nantes, France

Monika Łazar (age 17)

Rzeszów, Poland

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Using the Student Gallery in the Classroom