Connecting With A Donor Through Her Viewfinder of the World

Most photography equipment donated to Belmont High School, said Andrew Roy, who heads the school's photography classes, is the kind people are looking to "get rid of."

But last year in February, a donation from a working photojournalist took Roy by surprise: the bodies, lenses, darkroom material were all first-rate and up-to-date, worth up to $6,000. 

"It was huge. The biggest single donation we've ever had. It was unprecedented," said Roy. 

The photo apparatus had its own impressive history, having traveled several times to Afghanistan to photograph women in the midst of war, to the heat of the Amazon for world-reknown magazines, taking photos of women in Boston battling cancer or attempting to leave welfare. 

The equipment belonged to Selwyn Road resident Paula Lerner, a freelance photographer and photojournalist who won an Emmy-award for her multimedia work in Behind The Veil a year before.

Lerner died of cancer at 52 in March 2012. A month before dying, she called the school wishing to donate her equipment to continue working towards telling stories through the eyes of those just learning the art. 

Knowing that the usual 'thank you' note with a tax-deduction letter was hardly enough to express his appreciation to Lerner and her memory, Roy decided the best way his Photography III honors class could honor the bequest was through a group exhibition of student works inspired by Lerner's photography.

"The theme of the show is that if someone gives something to you, let's try to give something back," said Roy.

Using a grant from the Foundation of Belmont Education to supplement the new equipment and to pick up the exhibit's expenses, for a semester, the class shot, edited and printed the photos before selecting through a series of critiques that selected the strongest 26 pieces that best represented the group's goal. 

In addition, none of the photographs are identified with the students names.

"That way, it's more about the class working on a project as a whole and selecting the best from the group," said Roy. 

Ravi Pathak, a graduated senior who will matriculate this fall at Texas Christian University, said he was inspired by Lerner's abstract works when taking his photo of the glass within a lamp shade.

"I wanted them to guess what they were looking at. Most people could not tell what they were looking at and that made me happy because that was my goal," he said. 

That exhibit – Connections: A Tribute to Paula Lerner – can be seen at the Belmont Media Center, 9 Lexington St. in Waverley Square until Aug. 23. 

Some of the photos are for sale for $100 with half of the purchase price donated to fight breast cancer. 

Roy is also attempting to have the school's dark room named for Lerner.