On one of his many trips to Mackinac Island, 11-year-old Connor Hoffman decided to take out his camera and start snapping pictures of the historical Michigan destination.
After submitting a photo of the Mackinac Bridge to the 2009 Michigan Week Youth Photo Contest, and winning, Hoffman, now 13 years old, gets to enjoy the bridge in a new way — seeing it tour all over the state, something Hoffman said he enjoys.
“It was fun just to have my stuff on a tour and having other people see it and knowing what I’m doing,” Hoffman said.
After touring around Michigan, the winning photographs from the competition will be featured in the 2010 Michigan Week Youth Photo Contest Exhibit, which is on display through June 25 at the MSU Museum.
The annual competition, hosted by the MSU 4-H Youth Development Program, chose 12 photographs from submissions made by individuals aged nine to 19 and residing throughout 40 counties in Michigan. The event hopes to give younger people an opportunity to develop an interest in history, said Julie Avery, MSU Museum educator and curator.
“Unless we engage young people in a way that is interesting to them, we’re not going to have older people (in the field),” Avery said. “They don’t have to wait until they’re older to come across something that’s significant to them.”
The exhibit also is a part of the expanding services the 4-H program is working to offer youth through their programs.
“The focus of the program is to engage kids in learning about photography and documentation,” Avery said. “It’s not just animals and plants anymore — it’s engagement across anything and everything.”
By the end of the tour, more than 10,000 people will have viewed the exhibit, said Betsy Knox, project coordinator and worker for the MSU extension of the 4-H Youth Development.
Knox said the contest is an important chance for young people to get involved with documenting their state’s history.
“It’s not just how beautiful these young people can photograph, but they’re documenting these sites in perpetuity,” Knox said. “(These) young people are preserving historic sites through their photographs.”
MSU Museum communications manager Lora Helou said the pictures in the exhibit are impressive, especially given the young age of the photographers.
“When I first saw the exhibit, I was really, really impressed with the quality of the photographs these students photograph,” Helou said. “Whether you know the destinations or (not), you can still appreciate the creativity (of) these students.”
For more information on the 2010 Michigan Week Youth Photo Contest Exhibit, visit the MSU Museum’s website at museum.msu.edu.
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