KQED ARTS (SAN FRANCISCO) -- Opposite Frank’s work is a wall of photos taken by formerly incarcerated folks, a collaboration between CatchLight, Project Rebound, and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Together, the three entities facilitated a photojournalism workshop at San Francisco State, Frank’s alma mater, where he served as a mentor for the participants of the workshop.
“The big deal to me isn’t that my work was going to be there, but it was that the work of my students was going to be seen in this place where people come who affect public policy,” Frank says of their photos. “The fact that my students were going to be empowered in that way and feel like what they have to say can be heard. That to me is a powerful moment.”
The student photos — including portraits, candid shots of people going about their day, even a police officer — were taken in the streets where they’re from. All representative of the world they live in, both pre- and post-incarceration.