CLARION TWP., Pa. (EYT) — A group of photography and art students at Clarion-Limestone High School recently had the special opportunity to meet a well-known professional photographer and musician via Zoom.
According to Linda Schirmer, who teaches several levels of photography at Clarion-Limestone, the idea for a virtual field trip surfaced because of the COVID-19 pandemic limitations on in-person field trips.
Schirmer reached out via social media, putting out feelers for a professional photographer who would be willing to take part in a virtual event with students.
“It was hard because a lot of artists are kind of shy about things like this,” Schirmer told exploreClarion.com.
However, through a group of musicians, she ended up making contact with Dina Regine, a photographer and musician with an impressive resume.
Regine has taken photographs of Led Zeppelin, KISS, and the Rolling Stones and has had images in The NY Transit Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s education collection.
Her photos have been published in books and periodicals and used for album covers. Led Zeppelin chose one of her photographs for their first-ever official book “Led Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin” in 2018.
Regine has also performed with Bruce Springsteen, participated in fundraisers with Elton John, and has her own musical albums.
“I talked to her (Regine), and we met virtually,” Schirmer added.
“Then, I had the students type up questions ahead of time and sent them to her.”
Schirmer noted that when they got on the group Zoom call, Regine surprised her by addressing each of the students by name when answering their questions.
The students’ questions ranged through various topics, with Regine sharing her favorite type of photography (street photography) and talking about visiting various parts of the world to take photographs.
Regine connected with one student who had recently written a report on the famous photograph from the shooting at Kent State University in 1970, which Regine said names as one of the photos that was a major inspiration to her.
“She was very modest and really inspired them with how she spoke about being lucky to go beyond the boundaries to get where she is now.”
She also talked to the students about challenging themselves to see the world in a different way, Schirmer noted.
Several student also spoke to exploreClarion.com about their experience.
“It was nice to hear from another person’s perspective about how she got through it and how her life developed. She showed us that people find themselves being a photographer in different ways, and everyone has a different style,” Summer McLaine said.
Anna Kennemuth noted that Regine made everyone feel important.
“I love that she addressed everyone’s questions individually and made each person feel important.”
Braden Smith said his favorite part was “just being able to meet someone with so many accomplishments to help us learn.”
Like Schirmer, Morgan Hartle was also impressed with Regine’s modesty.
“She said her life was just normal like everyone else’s, but she’s done all these amazing things.”
According to Schirmer, the class is making a gift to send to Regine to thank her for her time interacting with them, and Schirmer is including notes from the students and a note she wrote herself about the impact Regine had on the class.
“She impacted these kids, and they’ll go out and do things because of this. I think just paying it forward and reaching out to us will extend way beyond what she’ll imagine.”
In the students’ notes, many of them said what an impact the meeting had on them and how much they wished they had more time with Regine.
“I was just really grateful. She’s a very busy lady, but she was willing to take the time out for this. She was just a pleasure, and I think in this time, with quarantine, being able to reach out to someone with a whole different set of experiences was fantastic, and it was above and beyond anything I expected,” Schirmer said.
