• MISSION + VISION

    First Exposures leverages the power of mentoring relationships and photography to empower young people to thrive, express themselves creatively, and become leaders in their communities. We envision a world where supportive relationships and creative expression are celebrated as a catalyst for change. 

  • SUPPORTIVE RELATIONSHIPS ARE EVERLASTING

    Our mentors and mentees are the heart and soul of what we do and the relationships they have are sacred. Each person brings something unique to the relationship and it is important to nurture these attributes. The mentee and mentor bond can be transformative, a relationship that can last a lifetime.

  • ELEVATE OUR YOUNG PEOPLE

    First Exposures holds the needs and priorities of our young people at the forefront and provides leadership opportunities and access to personal and artistic growth as they are the protagonists in our story. We celebrate their adolescence and inherent potential as a time of exponential growth and provide them with the skills and tools to be stronger self-advocates.

  • WE ARE AN INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY

    We embrace inclusivity. Everyone is welcome as they are. We celebrate individual differences — all races, genders, sexual identities, experiences, and ways of thinking and hold no biases based on immigration status, abilities, or cultures. We create a nurturing space of safety and equity for every person. 

  • INTEGRITY IS OUR NORTH STAR

    From the ground up, First Exposures operates with honesty, decency, trust, accountability, courage, and compassion for ourselves and others. We also approach failures as an opportunity to learn. We honor boundaries, our own and those of others. We believe that a community is only strong when all its members treat each other with respect and an open mind.

  • ART IS POWER

    Art has the power to communicate with people across time, space and language. Art has the power to heal trauma and change the course of history, to inspire, and guide revolutionary movements. Art cultivates fun, knowledge, and self.

FIRST EXPOSURES IS A NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED YOUTH PHOTOGRAPHY & MENTORING PROGRAM IN SAN FRANCISCO

Founded in 1993, First Exposures leverages the power of photography and mentorship to empower young people to thrive, express themselves creatively, and become leaders in their communities. FX has served thousands of Bay Area youth with high-quality free photography education and positive adult mentorship, providing youth ages 11-18 the opportunity to learn photography in a community-based setting with support from a photographer who serves as both a mentor and a positive adult role model.

Through time spent in experiential learning environments like darkrooms, museums, outdoor spaces, and even trips abroad, mentees can cultivate diverse perspectives to widen their horizons. Since 2004, over 95% of our mentees have gone on to pursue a college education with many returning to First Exposures as mentors, teaching artists, and committed community members of the FX family.

Our Programs
Donate & Support

First Exposures offers free youth programs in darkroom & digital photography Year-round

Yearlong 1:1 Mentoring Program

Since 1993, each First Exposures participant, ages 11-18, is matched one-to-one with a photographer who provides individualized guidance and serves as a volunteer mentor and positive adult role model.

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Summer Group Mentoring Program

In the summer of 2014, we introduced our first 8-week group-mentoring program for 30 youth, 11-18, where teamwork, collaboration, and peer-to-peer learning are central in learning photography.

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Young Artist Residency

Since 2017, FX’s Young Artist Residency has helped to cultivate the next generation of artists, image makers, and cultural leaders. Expanding from 8 weeks to 6 months, the residency is for experienced photographers, ages 16 to 24, to develop a personal photography project with the support of a Teaching Artist, visiting artists, and a cohort of peers.

First Exposures is so important to me as a place where I get to express myself. Outside of FX I am focused on everything else but myself but here, I have a space to really reflect and interact with other creatives.

— Siddhartha, FX Mentee, age 16

Equity statement

We are living in a time in which solidarity can no longer be a noun, living only in our words and on our social media, but it must be a verb of action, protest, and unlearning. Anti-Blackness and systemic racism are at the core of our nation’s history, impacting every facet of our lives. We are seeing now more than ever, young people are shouldering the weight of our history and being the catalysts of change with BIPOC youth leading the way. We must, as the First Exposures’ staff and board, support these efforts. As a youth-based arts organization working primarily with communities of color and other underserved communities, we are actively committed to dismantling systemic inequality in our society and within our own organization.

We are committed to:

  • In our organization, hiring practices, and in the participants of our program, including mentees, mentors, volunteers, and teaching artists. Our program strives to reflect the community we serve. goes here

  • We do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, immigration status, language, religion, political beliefs, or ability. We recognize that discrimination can take many forms, including micro-aggressions, overt statements of bias, and biased decision making. All of these forms of discrimination are prohibited for anyone who engages with First Exposures.

  • By providing equitable and accountable compensation, as well as, providing the freedom to take mental health days.

  • In our Advisory Board, through implementing new policy changes, bringing in members engaged in a multitude of community enrichment efforts, and holding regular Conversations on Racism seminars.

  • That supports growth, professional development, and learning for all First Exposures’ staff and program participants.

  • Racism, discrimination, exclusion, and the wide-ranging impacts that marginalization has had on our communities. We provide staff and program participants with educational resources, such as explicit and implicit bias training, trauma-informed training, and gender and sexuality allyship workshops.

  • To address conflict, centering healing and responding to violence and harm without replicating it.

  • By deweaponizing language in written, verbal, and visual communication through normalizing the use of gender pronouns, providing guidance to find alternatives to harmful language, and valuing the consent and privacy of all program participants. We aim to create emotional and creative spaces to process our sociopolitical moments personally and collectively.

  • By highlighting contemporary and historical image-makers of color, as well as, nonbinary photographers to mirror back artists who represent our youth. We support the efforts to decolonize photography from its former use as a tool for criminalizing and tokenizing communities of color. We aim to create bilingual curricula to ensure that all FX’s participants have equitable learning opportunities.

  • In all decisions we make for our organization through projects such as Envision, an effort to provide free portraits to under-resourced people, and installing public art that speaks to the issues facing our community.

  • To take on more leadership roles in First Exposures through initiatives such as the Youth Advisory Board, a youth-led program, and curricula decision-making body.