Photographer Karen Shell on Keeping Kids in Focus with a Camera Lens

Eye: I wanted to start by talking about your relationship with at-risk youth and about your Kids in Focus program.

Karen: I really had no idea what was going to come from it. I thought I’d get some photographers I know and we’d teach the kids some photography and we’d put on an exhibit of their work–that it would probably boost their confidence.

When I finished that first project, I could not believe my eyes because these kids whom I knew well were drastically different — just life-changing transformations.

Photo: Scott Hayes