Youth Night at New City Kids
I volunteered to photograph a youth night event the New City Kids in Jersey City. This was my first time having a responsibility to deliver a portfolio to a client. I was so nervous but the kids at the party were so kind and we quickly became friends, I forgot that I was there fore a “job”.
New City Kids isn't just an after-school program — it's a performing arts center and a whole community, a place in Jersey City where kids sing, dance, make music, and cheer each other on. So a "youth night" there isn't quiet. It's loud in the best way: music thumping, people laughing, someone always mid-dance-move.
About ten minutes in, a couple of the kids came right up to ask me to joint their ice-breaking game — I stopped feeling like a nervous photographer and started feeling like I'd been invited to a party.
Once the performances got going, there was so much happening — kids singing into the mic, dancing in groups, hyping each other up from the sidelines. My challenge stopped being "how do I fill the frame" and became "how do I keep up."
What I loved was that nobody was performing for the camera — they were performing for each other, and I just got to catch it. Those are always the best kinds of photos: the ones where people forget you're there. A hand thrown in the air, a burst of laughter, two friends singing the same line at the same time. I missed plenty of shots, but the ones that landed felt real, and that mattered more to me than getting everything perfect.
I came to New City Kids to deliver a portfolio, and I did — but I left with something I didn't expect. Photographing people you've actually talked to and laughed with looks different than photographing strangers. There's a kind of trust in those frames that you can feel. By the end of the night I wasn't nervous anymore; I was just grateful to have been let in.
This was my first time being responsible for delivering photos to a real client, and it taught me that the technical stuff — focus, light, timing — only gets you halfway. The other half is showing up as a person, being kind, and paying attention to people. The kids at New City Kids taught me that as much as any camera setting ever could. Thank you to everyone there for making my first "job" feel like a night out with friends.
The Night was young at New City Kids, Jersey City