“What’s Your Story?” is a course designed to blend selfie culture and personal history archiving with a direct introduction to the many cultures and cultural experiences in Southern California. Students work together at a community event by asking people to sit down and tell their stories with the added element of photography and portraiture. Integral to the project is the recognition and visibility that comes with sharing a story, a history, and culture with the world.

This class offers students real-world community involvement and the practical experience of public, fast paced production. Students will crew a festival booth to facilitate the creation of an image and oral history archiving. Based on the community event, assignments will include visiting lecturers, readings, research, video, and discussion. This class may require weekend or evening participation off campus depending on the selected community events.

Anyone who comes to the “What’s Your Story?” booth will be gifted a portrait on 13 x 19 print, those who participate further by granting us an interview, will have their stories archived and celebrated through a breadth of social media outlets, exhibitions, and publications. Their stories will reach well beyond their personal social algorithm. Scroll down to see examples of “What’s Your Story"?” portraits.

This course is open to all majors 4th term and above.

About the Instructors:

Ken Marchionno, is an artist, educator, writer, and curator living in the Los Angeles area. He is a Professor of Photography and Imaging at ArtCenter College of Design. Since receiving his MFA from UC Irvine, Ken has taught photography, interactive media, and video, as well as Graduate seminar and critique classes in the US and abroad. For over four decades, much of Ken’s work has been community engaged, social practice. 

His work has been featured in exhibitions and festivals throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia, including the Smithsonian Institute, the National Center for the Arts in Mexico City, the Third China Songzhuang International Exhibition, the California Museum of Photography, the Moscow Film Festival, and the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, CA. His work has been featured in books on photography and media, including Dr. Betty Ann Brown’s Art and Mass Media, and Robert Hirsch’s texts on photography. He has been a stringer for the Associated Press and his photography has been featured in magazines and newspapers throughout the world. Additionally, he has published art criticism and short stories for international magazines and journals.

As Director of tractionarts, Ken curated the alternative video space in the downtown LA Arts District, and organized exhibitions for Spring Break Art Show in Los Angeles and the Deagu Photo biennale in Korea. His work has received funding from the arts and humanities, and most recently the California Community Foundation, the Society for Photographic Education, and the Sidney Stern Memorial Trust.  

Manjari Sharma, based in LA, was born and raised in Mumbai, India, and makes art that addresses the issues of memory, identity, multiculturalism, and personal mythology. After moving to New York City, she gained notoriety for her long-term project titled "The Shower Series." With this series, Manjari began creating work that was just as much about the materiality of water as it was about the inner landscape of the human mind. Expanding her art practice, Manjari has continued incorporating sound, motion, projection, and collage into her work. Manjari's project 'Darshan' (Published by Nazraeli press) is a photographic re-imagining of Hindu deities that garnered her wide critical acclaim. In 2017 the Metropolitan Museum of Art commissioned Manjari to create a collaborative piece that received international praise and recognition. Manjari's work has been seen in The New York Times, Vice Magazine, CNN, LA Times, The Huffington Post, and NPR, to name a few. Works from her projects have been published, exhibited, and traveled to galleries, museums, and festivals worldwide. Manjari's work is in the permanent collection of The MET, MFA, Houston, Carlos Museum, and Birmingham Museum of Art, amongst various private collections.