Renowned Photographer Gifts Graduating Baltimore School For The Arts Students Senior Prom Portraits
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- May is supposed to be filled with senior portraits and festivities to mark students' graduation from high school. Instead, the Class of 2020 is dealing with a new reality of canceled proms and no commencement ceremonies.
Those circumstances that motivated one man to start a project aimed at bringing back a sense of normalcy for graduating seniors.
Joseph Giordano is a photojournalist who also teaches at the Baltimore School for the Arts. This week, he arranged for a project to photograph students in the prom outfits they would otherwise not get to wear after dances were canceled during the pandemic.
"A lot of them already bought prom outfits before the lockdown," he said. "I think the seniors needed something to really send them on their way."
Giordano used the school's building off Cathedral Street in Baltimore as a backdrop. Tuesday, some students who signed up for a session arrived outside the building wearing masks. Another session is scheduled for Wednesday.
"It was amazing to have our building as a backdrop," Layla Nordrun said. "It was the first thing I saw when I came here as a freshman and it's the last thing that I'm seeing now."
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Other students spoke about the uncertainty that changed their plans for senior year.
"It was really sad that the last time I got to see it was just this random Thursday and they were like you'll be back in two weeks and we just weren't," senior Quinn Fireside said.
Rose Rotkowski, another graduating senior, recalled her last day at school.
"I didn't even know my last day of school was my last day. I didn't even say goodbye to anyone," she said. "I was running to catch the bus."
Rotkowski hadn't bought a prom gown, but she accented a simple black dress with a fur coat and colorful ankle boots to showcase her style.
"Not to sound cheesy or dramatic but I literally went through the five stages of grief in a way," she said. "I mean, I spent the last 12 years of my life thinking that I was going to end the year in a certain way. The fact that it didn't, it's really hard to realize."
"This is history. We are history makers I guess," senior Jaiden Hanley said. "To be able to take the pictures as if we did go to prom, it kind of makes up for it."
Giordano described the shoot as a collaboration with his students. He said the professional photos will be a parting gift to the students.
"They are all really special kids. I wouldn't want to teach [any]where else," he said.
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