Palm Beach Photographic Centre Announces PICTURE DAY
Offering Free School Portraits to 50 Local Students
(West Palm Beach, FL – November 13, 2020) Fatima NeJame, president and chief executive officer of the world renowned Palm Beach Photographic Centre (PBPC), today announced the longtime nonprofit educational and creative force in downtown West Palm Beach, is participating in PICTURE DAY, a new public service initiative to provide free school portraits to 50 local students.
As students return to the classroom during the current COVID pandemic, many familiar educational and social experiences are absent, including the traditional school picture day. To fill this visual void, the Photo Centre is offering 50 local students a fine art school portrait.
“We are inviting families to bring their school-age children to receive a free portrait, taken by members of our talented faculty,” says NeJame. “The portraits will be captured in a uniform fashion—at a proper social distance, of course—at the Photo Centre’s professional studio adjacent to the Mandel Public Library in downtown West Palm Beach.”
The parent or guardian needs to contact the Photo Centre at 561.253.2600 to schedule the free school portrait. The child must be accompanied by an adult for the photo session. This community initiative is currently limited to 50 students on a first-come basis.
After each photo shoot, students will receive a 5×7 portrait, printed on archival paper. There will also be a virtual PICTURE DAY gallery housed on PBPC’s website (www.workshop.org).
PICTURE DAY was developed in conjunction with the Palm Beach Photographic Centre by local author and photographer Susan Currie.
“Reflecting back on my personal experiences (as both a student and a parent), ‘back to school’ often translated to ‘picture day’—a tradition which for a moment, stops time and documents a year in the life of a student’s personal development. PICTURE DAY was conceived as a vehicle for keeping that tradition alive for students,” says Currie, who began her creative career photographing children about 20 years ago, although she has been focusing her lens on other subjects in recent years.
“This just feels like a calling right now—to turn my lens back to where I began,” she adds. “I am grateful to the Photo Centre for the many rich educational experiences it has brought me personally, and now PICTURE DAY is just one more way to give back creatively to our local community.”
PICTURE DAY is being generously supported by Lensbaby, an Oregon-based manufacturer of special effects camera lenses and accessories. The company’s mission is to support photographers in discovering “more wonder.”
“At Lensbaby, we want to empower creatives to give back to their community, especially when it involves youth,” says Michael Anthony, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. ‘Through collective effort we can do something extraordinary by positively impacting those people who are touched by our art.”
Currently on display at PBPC is the 24th Annual Members’ Show, a juried exhibition that showcases the work of its members, both inside the Photo Centre and on its Web site, www.workshop.org.
About the Palm Beach Photographic Centre:
The Photo Centre is located at the downtown City Center municipal complex at 415 Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach. Hours are 10 am to 5 pm. Monday through Saturday. For more information, please call 561.253.2600 or visit www.workshop.org or www.fotofusion.org.
The Palm Beach Photographic Centre is a non-profit organization dedicated to enriching life through the photographic arts. All donations are greatly appreciated at www.workshop.org/contrib.