Photography Without Borders founder, photographer and educator Tony Rocco on finding your business muse and discovering your own path, in your own time.
Tony Rocco stumbled through life for a while before he figured out what he wanted to be when he grew up, let alone how he could positively impact others. He took a photography class his first semester in college, during which his first photographs were, as he describes, “just awful” because they were random pictures that lacked meaning.
So while planning a trip to study abroad in Colombia, Tony decided to use to photography as a tool to help him explore that part of his culture and personal story. He soon found the missing “meaning” in his work, and also discovered a tool for others, especially children, to explore their interests and their selves.
This photographer and middle school teacher’s personal mission to maximize his potential as an artist and educator took an international turn with Photography Without Borders, a nonprofit, collaborative art program he founded in 2010. The groundbreaking organization pairs international students who share their individual photographs taken during the program, as well as the stories behind them.
In working toward his own personal goal and path to purpose, Tony has been able to guide children toward maximizing their own potential as artists and storytellers. Tony demonstrates that even when we have natural ability in a given area, we still have to work to develop and cultivate our talent. He proves that anything worthwhile in life requires struggle, dealing with rejection and hard work. The perspective he shares transcends photography and offers us all a new way to approach and live life.
How has what you’ve learned about “perspective” in photography helped you see different points of view in life?
People use art to explore. It enhances our environment and who we are as individuals. Photography “clicked” with me when I found something worth investigating.
My first college photography class was just awful. I took random pictures of things, but nothing had meaning [to me]. While preparing to go to Colombia my second semester, I had the idea to use photography as my way to explore my homeland and culture, and to better understand that part of me. I tell anyone to use photography as a tool to explore whatever you’re interested in and want to learn more about.
What is your “business” muse (i.e., people often refer to this in terms of art and creativity but organizations need something that “inspires” them as well)?
In a perfect world, we do things because that’s what we like to do.
In the non-profit world, you have to promote [your art] in ways that not only showcase it but also demonstrates its “value.” You have to present your art of whatever you do in a way that enables you to secure funding and new opportunities.
We are currently building a partnership with the United Way organization. When we first started the process we were told we needed to meet key goals, as well as several indicators that would demonstrate how our youth programs are helping improve attendance and performance in school. This was all new to me. My primary goal had been to make kids think about and enjoy art.
The reality is that what we want to do and what we need to do are sometimes two different things.
You need to show how your work is making a measurable impact and deserves funding [over someone/something else]. Yes, we all know art opens up the mind and helps kids later in life, but if you are running a program or a non-profit, you have to find the numbers [and data] to show how it’s impacting kids now.
Who was your most memorable teacher?
As an undergrad at Temple University, I took English Comp 50. I got a C, but I’ve never worked so hard for a C in my life. It was humbling. I wasn’t the greatest writer but working so hard work made me learn, and that’s what made me enjoy the class.
It was because of the professor’s high standard [for me and others] that I think I learned more in that one class than all of my other writing classes combined. He made me want to be a better writer. I use his techniques as a model in my teaching. Hopefully, if I do it right, one day when my students look back or are asked who was their favorite middle school teacher – they’ll say me.
My photography teacher at Temple also stands out. The truth is he didn’t really “teach” that much, but he provided a wonderful environment. Some in education are stuck in the notion that we sit in front of kids and just teach. When our real role as educators is to create an environment where people feel safe and are encouraged to be creative and exchange ideas. We should set high expectations and goals, and let children discover and solve problem as they reach to attain those goals. Of course, some people will always need more guidance than others, but even those people need to be guided to look inside themselves to come up with their own answer.
Is there something particular that gets you into a creative mindset?
Creativity is a process. Not all of the pictures I take are good.
In fact, I tell my students most of the pictures they’ll take are going to be out of focus or just bad.
Sometimes it’s the really bad ones that lead you in a new direction where you can learn from [and hopefully not repeat] the same mistakes.
Also, it’s not just middle schoolers, but many of us want instant gratification. We all know that the really worthwhile things [in life and career] really take time. Nothing great comes without time and some degree of failure.
Why do some people get stuck [in life]?
They put unrealistic pressure on themselves to have instant success. I don’t know how many grants I’ve been denied from, but I can tell you something I learned from each denial. The hard truth is many people are lazy and want things now – without having to work for it. Their mindset says they don’t feel successful unless they accomplish things right away.
I’m teaching my students photography [on film] because it takes hours to process a single photo that sometimes doesn’t come out at all. This lengthy process teaches them to appreciate that cell phone picture that was perfect in an instant and posted to their Facebook wall in seconds.
Also, as people see you achieve a certain level of success they will start to ask you things. They see the end product but none of the backstory. Someone once asked me, “How do I get an exhibit at a gallery [like you]?” I told them this didn’t just happen. Do you know how long it took me to get an exhibit at a gallery? Do you know how many years I had to build my portfolio and beg people to put up my work in coffee shops or any place that would let me?
Photography and life is about working at [and for] things, and not instant success.
Is the storytelling aspect of photography why you do what you do? Can photography help people come together and overcome differences?
Storytelling is the core of what I try to teach – as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. We start by getting the children comfortable using the camera. Then we ask them to tell the ‘story’ of where they’re from. It’s empowering when they realize they’re shaping what others will see and know about their culture and communities – communities often typecast and stereotyped. Photography gives them the power to change the “narrative,” and help people see a different side. Children also always share a very unique perspective.
As adults, we think we ‘know everything’ because of our many experiences. Many of us have forgotten how to see the world in a different, childlike way. Photography gives children the tool to tell stories that have meaning to them – but it shows the world through their eyes.
It’s amazing to see the similarities of stories from children all over the world – where kids are just kids. A 10-year-old in Africa, Colombia or North Philadelphia, has similarities when it comes to how they feel about family, community or their culture.
Equally, there are some interesting differences that can lead to inspiring conversations. Photography is this awesome way I’ve found to encourage kids to learn about not only their own culture, but others as well. It enables them to learn and teach through telling stories of people and places that make a culture truly unique and not just to talk about traditional, superficial stuff like a country’s flag, national flower or main exports.
What are the main driving forces outside of your passion that have helped you get to where you are today?
I didn’t have a lot growing up. But my students deal not just with monetary lack, but with some serious issues. Their lives make me appreciate growing up with two parents who worked hard to give us home and to teach us right from wrong. My parents gave my brother and me the support to succeed and the moral code [that it was our responsibility] to help others.
My mother was everything to me. Watching her help others who were less fortunate inspires me to help those students who did not have the opportunities I’ve had.
Sometimes I wonder if I had been exposed to photography [in the way I try to teach it] when I was ten or twelve, maybe it could have helped me not just in art or photography, but in life.
There is a young lady, Katalina, who runs our photography program in Colombia. Katalina is from this incredibly poor neighborhood. Her family lives in squalor, but she’s finishing college. She’s not the greatest photographer by the way, but that’s not what she got out of the program.
The program gave her the opportunity to be part of something. It became a way for her to develop leadership skills. Now she’s an ambassador working with elected officials and others in her community.
I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t help her develop these things, but she always had them inside her. Sometimes all we need is to feel like “we can” because we’ve been given not only an opportunity, but also the support.
Inspiring others through art is an amazing satisfaction that money can’t buy.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned from someone’s quiet or unconventional wisdom?
My eighth graders just got their acceptance letters or in most cases their denial letters to the high schools of their choice. They’re learning an important lesson that you have to work for what you want and that things are not just given to you. Truth is, most of the ones who didn’t get in are the same ones who didn’t do what they needed to do. In a sense, it’s good for them to learn this now versus going through life expecting positive results for doing nothing.
I was lost in high school. So I understand how difficult it can be to figure out what you want to do in life [at any age]. I tell people there’s no one way to do things. People will try to give you advice saying that you must do this, that or the other thing. It can be confusing because no one really knows what’s expected [or required] to be successful. So I like to share this particular example of a friend who found and went his own path.
Out of our group of friends from the neighborhood, there is only one guy who never went nor ever had any intention to go to college.
After high school, he started working for his uncle’s lunch truck. He worked like a dog. By the time I graduated college, which took me six years, he went from working for his uncle to buying his first truck and then eventually having three trucks of his own. Here I am graduating from college with tons of loans and he had people working for him and not a penny of debt.
College wasn’t for him, but he put an incredible amount of work in to doing things the way that he wanted to do them. And, in the process he found a way to be successful in life. There’s no one way to success, but I do know we each need to figure out the best path(s) on our own. It [the answer] may come to you immediately or a little or a lot longer. From grade school, my brother knew he wanted to be an engineer. He’s worked hard toward achieving that goal, and he’s an incredibly successful [engineer] today.
Things didn’t work that way for me. I had to stumble through life for
a while until I figured things out. Others continue to remind me that we need to give ourselves time to figure out our path and our purpose – in our own way and in our own time.
About Tony Rocco:
Middle school teacher, and Philadelphia-based photographer and educator Tony Rocco founded Photography Without Borders (http://photography-without-borders.com), a collaborative art program in 2010. The organization’s groundbreaking program is designed to engage children around the world in multi-disciplinary learning and photography-based cultural exchanges. The goal is to develop and inspire young leaders by broadening their exposure to educational and cultural experiences outside their borders. Along with the technical aspects, the children are taught how to create photographs that have deep personal and cultural meaning, and how to use photography as a means of telling and sharing stories.
Tony Rocco is living out part of his purpose through photography and as an educator. He uses photography as a powerful tool for children to learn not only their own culture, but others’ as well. This “Chico de Cali” (as Rocco sometimes refers to himself) born to a Colombian mother and Italian father is in some sense the embodiment of the American Dream. Tony is positively impacting the lives of children [and adults] in North Philadelphia, Colombia and around the world by sharing his art, innovative teaching techniques and his desire to make a difference in the world – one child, one pin-hole camera and one story at a time.