Behold & Belonging: From Getty to Boyle Heights

A community photo classroom opens the door to a different way of entering a museum.

Inside Las Fotos Project—part classroom, part studio, all community—young photographers use images to say who they are. A new collaboration connects their voices to a landmark exhibition on migration, memory, and identity. The takeaway isn’t a style—it’s a method: meaning first, then the vessel.

Back in the studio, that spark becomes an independent study. Students dig into family archives, kinship, place, and displacement—choosing forms that can hold what they need to say. Then we meet Wendy—a participant and student in the independent study—who builds a soft pink tent you crawl into, images overhead inviting you to look up and remember: her story, and maybe your own. The cohort carries their work into a neighborhood gallery, where strangers step closer and the vulnerability of being seen turns into applause.

Follow Jaime as he traces how a museum show doesn’t end at closing time. It travels—through classrooms, archives, and city blocks—linking one Los Angeles from community space to museum.

Special thanks to Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, John Giurini, Las Fotos Project, Christian Morales, Arlene Mejorado, Diego Torres-Casso, and Wendy Cubillo.

Check out the María Magdalena Campos-Pons exhibition page for related events and images.