© Anna Ream

Visual Storytelling Lab

CENTER invites members of the military and veterans to create a photo project in the Visual Storytelling Lab, providing up to five people with one-on-one coaching to learn visual storytelling techniques. This Spring, participants will learn from an award-winning photographer Brandon Kapelow, about creating image-based series, including editing, sequencing, and developing project statements. The focus on the photographic series and long-form narrative can utilize existing or new images, data, and related memorabilia to consolidate memories and elevate them into project form. Also included in the Visual Storytelling are access to CENTER’s online seminars - Project Statements, and Outreach & Engagement.

The Visual Storytelling Lab was conducted online from March - June 2024, and provided customized one-on-one guidance, as well as group interactions for taking or selecting individual images to create a project significant to the participant. Any person at any point in their photographic practice, from beginners to professionals, is invited to work with us to create a project and elevate their image-making through the Storytelling Lab. At the end, CENTER will create online galleries for program participants, promote the projects on social media channels, and publish work in our e-newsletter to help their story reach a wider audience.

2024 VISUAL STORYTELLING LAB ONLINE GALLERIES

WHO CAN REGISTER • New Mexico-based veterans, active-duty service members, reservists, National Guard members, or their caregivers. Any camera or device can be used to capture imagery. Computer and Zoom access is required.

APPLICATION • Applications for 2024 are closed. Please check back for information about our 2025 program.

Lab Leader & Mentor

Brandon Kapelow • Photographer & Filmmaker | Project Development Grant winner

Brandon Kapelow is a visual artist from Wyoming whose credits span work as a director, photographer, and cinematographer. His focus is on exploring stories centered on real people and the challenges they face through their unique histories and cultures. As a suicide loss survivor from an early age, Brandon has a passion for exploring topics related to mental health. Outside of his creative practice, Brandon is a peer-support facilitator for SOLACE and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Brandon’s films have screened at domestic and international festivals such as the Academy and BAFTA-qualifying Los Angeles Short Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, and Aesthetica Short Film Festival. He is currently in production on a feature documentary exploring the use of psychedelic-assisted therapies in treating workplace traumas among first responders.

As a photographer, Brandon's ongoing body of work, Somewhere I Belong, focuses on the issue of suicide in the American West, which for decades has experienced the nation's highest rates of suicide death. His writing and images from the series were published in Time Magazine. Brandon’s work has been featured in Adweek, Billboard, Booooooom, Complex, Engadget, The Fader, NPR, Pitchfork, and Vice.

Supporter

Thank you to the grantor who made this program possible - New Mexico Arts and the Military