‘Wings of Change’ Helps South-Central Students Soar : Education: An exhibition of works by renowned photographers and L.A. youth is part of a national dropout prevention program.

What does 13-year-old South-Central Los Angeles resident Johnny Bailey have in common with world-famous photographers Annie Leibovitz, Andres Serrano and Sebastian Salgado? Each has created photographic images of life in the ‘90s that will share wall space in “Wings of Change: Images of Contradiction and Consensus,” an exhibition of works by internationally renowned photographers and L.A. youth through Dec. 8 at the Directors Guild of America.

Bailey, a student at Markham Middle School, is one of 32 Watts-area students whose works were chosen from among 2,400 photographs submitted by 100 kindergartners through high schoolers who entered the “Young Wings of Change” competition.

Judged by professional photographers and gallery owners, the competition and the overall exhibition, which was curated by Diana Edkins of Conde Nast Publications, are segments of an extensive community outreach partnership between Giorgio Beverly Hills and Los Angeles Cities in Schools, part of a national dropout prevention program.

Edkins, who describes the exhibition as “a mosaic of cultures and people who express the spirit of global change,” said the 115 professional works she culled from several hundred portray a series of themes: “the environment, urban reality, the changing definition of family, children, individuals that are generating change through their passion and spirituality.”

The students took their photos with similar, close-to-home issues in mind. Bailey’s tearful little girl, Shavon Craig’s young boys playing on a peaceful tree-lined street, Clifford Skannal’s sign signaling “There Is Hope for All Who Enter Here”: These are some of the images of life in South-Central L.A. that Bailey hopes will help “put a better name on our city.”

Competing students, based at the Education Center in Watts, received free, disposable cameras and photography books from Kodak and were given photographic basics by professionals such as Dan Winters, who has four works of his own in the exhibition and helped judge the competition.

Winters was impressed with the results. “A number of kids had not merely stopped at something, but had studied it, looked at it, worked it--the fundamentals of seeing in photography,” he said.

“The great thing about it is that they were using these incredibly low-tech disposable cameras, and got amazing images. Hopefully, (viewers) will walk away with the understanding that it’s not the equipment, it’s the operator. Someone’s got to make decisions and respond to make it work.”

“I was greatly surprised at how universal and timeless the pictures were,” said Santa Monica gallery owner G. Ray Hawkins, who made a personal connection while judging “six tabletops full” of photos.

“I grew up in a very inarticulate surrounding,” he said, “but I became a photographer in high school and learned that the camera is a tool, a dictionary, if you will, that could help me discover my world and share it with others.”

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That thrill of discovery, along with mentoring relationships and other one-on-one Cities in Schools activities are what Southwest Regional Director Robert Arias hopes will help at-risk youth expand their horizons and see opportunities for the future.

Cities in Schools is not a dropout prevention program that invites the private sector to “simply write a check,” he said. Encouraging direct involvement between public schools and the private sector is “the yes that complements the no. It’s wonderful for children to learn to say no to negative things, but we (need to) expose them to life experiences that allow them to say yes.”

Photography, Arias believes, has been a resounding “yes” experience that he would like to see continue, with workshops, mentoring and support from professionals.

Bailey, who said that he has been offered a job as assistant to a photographer who saw his work, has no doubts about his ambition in life. After college at Michigan State or Stanford, “I want to be a stockbroker.”