We think graduating from high school is a big deal!
It should be celebrated with photographs to boast about the achievement. Many families are not able to afford the extra expenditure for senior pictures while some can. Whatever your status, consider Photo Forward.
Not only will you get professional photographs, but you will also be helping another high school graduate have the same quality of photographs to commemorate their senior year.
“YOU DON'T LOVE BACK, YOU PAY IT FORWARD"
Lily Hardy Hammond (1916)
We are not a free service but a pay-it-forward profession.
Any amount that our seniors are able to pay goes towards the next senior’s photographs, which includes a selection of prints and downloadable edited copies. Since our photographers graciously offer their time and talent the cost is significantly lower than your average studio.
Inspiration from Executive Director, Clair Farris
Like many families on the south side of Columbus my parents were divorced, and I lived with a single parent, my father.
Money wasn’t necessarily tight, but watching our spending was an importance. I never knew how much or how little money we had because if I needed something essential, it was provided. If I wanted something superfluous then I was told, like most other teenagers, to use my own money saved from my summer job.
Unfortunately for my father, a self-employed carpenter, my important necessities were a long list.
The traditions of senior year were also significant and came with a price tag. Cap and Gown, Class Ring, Senior Trip and Senior Pictures were amongst those. Some of my classmates had professional photographs taken for senior year that I imagine cost well over the $90 prom dress that I had my heart set on and had to get up enough nerve to ask for. For some compromise, I took my own Senior Pictures.
At that time, I was a photographer. I had an “eye” and talent, but it was before I received my degree and by no means was I a professional. My dad never asked me to take my own senior pictures, I was just passionate enough to try it and presumptuous enough to think I could do just as well as the professionals. In fact, I tested my skills on a number of classmates with similar upbringing as myself.
My classmates may have been able to afford those professional photographs, and maybe I could as well, but I never asked and never cared. Their parents would pay for the film, yes film, to be developed and would give me a little cash or presents for the job. I never looked at it as work or an obligation, but as a chance to practice photography and hang out with my friends from school.
Even though I am a long way from those glory days, the Photo Forward seed was planted then.
Photo Forward is not a charity for the needy, a certain demographic, group or school district.
We are for all.
- Clair Farris (photo of Clair from senior pictures by Clair Farris and Aaron Gettys)
Classmates from Hamilton Township High School
Photos taken by Clair Farris during senior year
Top (left to right): Katie, Stefanie, Caley, Ambie
Bottom (left to right): Tiffany, Michael, Marquitta, Danielle