Since 2019, Santa Barbara City College’s School of Extended Learning has been offering a photography course for veterans and taught by veterans. Now, the college is expanding the program by inviting first responders or retired first responders to enroll in the free course starting in January.

The community and anyone interested in learning more about the class are invited to a photography showcase and open house to view work from this semester’s students and talk with instructors, noon-3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10 at the college’s Wake Campus.

The introductory class Digital Photography: Techniques and Creative Applications in a Community-Oriented Setting is made possible by support from the SBCC Foundation and donations of equipment and materials by Canon U.S.A., Inc. It is currently taught by brothers and Vietnam War era veterans, Bill and Steve Espinosa.

The branches of the United States military stress the importance of duty and assisting fellow service members, and for many veterans, that sentiment extends after being discharged from active duty. This is what drove the Espinosa brothers to begin teaching the class after they themselves were students in the class in 2019. 

“Serving in the military is an experience that is hard for others to fathom and can really only be understood by veterans,” Bill Espinosa said. “Coming together to learn a new skill and working collaboratively alongside other veterans offers us a comfort and sense of community many of us don’t realize we’re missing after retiring from active duty.”

The class was the brainchild of Terence Ford and his fStop Foundation. Ford, the brother of actor Harrison Ford, had worked in commercial photography and the film industry in Los Angeles for decades before starting the photography class.

“It’s important to provide an opportunity for veterans to reconnect and both offer and receive peer support to develop a community where everyone feels engaged,” said Ford, whose program was also embedded at Camp Pendleton’s Wounded Warrior Battalion West and for four years at Pathway Home at the Soldiers Home in Yountville, California.

“Programs such as these photography classes allow veterans to learn new skills while forging social connections, creating a strong community,” he said.

Students in earlier sessions of the course selected their best work from the semester, and printed and framed the photos to decorate Johnson Court, an affordable housing development that serves the Santa Barbara homeless veteran population.

The photos were printed via Canon Professional large format printers and framed. The veterans living in Johnson Court then selected which ones they wanted to decorate their unit.

“What we’re able to produce because of the support of Canon is remarkable. None of us came into the program thinking we were capable of such high quality work. It’s really really cool to see what we can achieve by working together through the process of capturing images, editing and printing them,” Espinosa said.

The associated instructional costs for the program are offset with support from the SBCC Foundation.  

The next session of the free class will be held noon-3 p.m. Thursdays Jan. 16-Mar. 9. Registration opens Dec. 15. To register email Bill Espinosa, wespinosa@pipeline.sbcc.edu; or Steve Espinosa, spespinosa@pipeline.sbcc.edu.

All guests at the open house are asked to follow the college’s current COVID-19 protocols to attend.