A young woman named Rachel takes photos as part of an underwater photography project called "Under the Surface" offered by the resident treatment center Northwest Passage in collaboration with Toben Lafrancois at Northland College. Photo by Brett Seymour/National Park Service.
The University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, which receives funding from the federally-funded national Sea Grant, recently awarded $2.8 million to a variety of Great Lakes research and education projects, including “Under the Surface,” an underwater therapeutic photography program for youth at Northwest Passage, a residential mental health facility in northern Wisconsin. “Under the Surface” is led by Ian Karl of Northwest Passage and Toben Lafrancois of Northland College. Read more and and listen to the 4/2/2018 WPR story here.
Karl and Lafrancois will team up to lead the 2018 Wisconsin Idea Seminar participants through a 1.5-mile hike in Houghton Falls Nature Preserve in May, and the 2018 Wisconsin Idea Seminar tour book will feature an “Under the Surface” photo on its cover.
Listen to a 2013 WPR interview with Ben Thwaits, the Program Development Coordinator for Northwest Passage. He describes how troubled youth engage photography for self-expression and therapeutic creativity.