youth activist training, Boyarka

Students from the village of Dmitrovka, 52 miles south of Chernobyl, participate in a Youth Action Project workshop focused on how to be an activist and how to improve health conditions in radiation-affected areas.

I can't even count how many classrooms I've shot in over the years. I've been interested to note that Ukrainian teenagers don't look much different from American teens. Except better dressed.

In shooting classes, the challenge is often this: everyone sits around a table, quietly listening, or perhaps daydreaming, or perhaps bored out of their minds. It takes patience to catch the moment when everyone in the shot is engaged. Plus you need a composition that is interesting to look at and you want to show both a primary subject and some context. Often the best moments are at the very beginning and end of a class; the shot above was during a moment of reflection as the session ended.

After I shot the photo above, it reminded me of another photo I made in 2003 at the Linden Drive preschool at UW-Madison.