Portraits show Kitchener teens how much they've changed — and stayed the same — over 10 years

An end of year portrait project is giving a group of grads from Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute in Kitchener, Ont., a stronger sense of self as they set off into the next chapter of their lives. 

The photos are side-by-side images: portraits taken in the last months of Grade 12 and ones taken a decade earlier when the students were in Grade 2. 

It came together after teacher Conan Stark learned that students in his Grade 12 photography class had been the subject of a field trip to an elementary school back in 2012. 

At the time, he had taken another class of Grade 12 students to Williamsburg Public School to take photos of the students in his wife's Grade 2 class. 

"We went there — just for the day — just to teach my students about photojournalism, kind of working on-location photography," he told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo.

"Jump ahead to this year, earlier in the year, I discovered some of students were actually in my Grade 12 photography class now," he said.

"So it was really this full-circle moment that, very serendipitously, presented itself."

Anne-Katherine Le, 17, doesn't remember the photographers in her class, but she does remember the activity she was doing on the day the photos were taken — and the look of determination on her face as she makes a craft. 

"I do remember that exact photo of me cutting the snowflake, because I used left-handed scissors — and I'm right-handed. So I remember being a kid and really struggling with cutting the snowflake," Le said. 

Many of the students enjoyed marking the similarities and differences between then and now, like 18-year-old Nardos Felefele.

"I usually don't get box braids, but recently I've been on a bit of a kick," Felefele said. "And it happened to coincide perfectly for when we were taking the photo for this. And I was wearing black as well, and I look exactly like my younger self."

Le also reflected on her hairstyle.

"Honestly, I don't think I'll ever get bangs ever again," Le said. "I kind of rocked them in second grade. I feel like I'm so similar and so different at the same time."

The side-by-side portraits also gave Stark and his students a chance to explore the idea of core memories, identity and personality.