[media-credit name=”Ericka Gonzalez, Staff” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Some photographers take pictures, but Juan Pacheco makes art. He is on a mission at Southwestern College to inspire students to join his quest to make photography a tool of social change.

Pacheco grew up in the Boyle Heights Community of East Los Angeles, where legendary math teacher Jaime Escalante was showing underachieving students that they had great ability if they would work to develop it. Pacheco said he knew he was meant for big things. He loved the arts at a very young age, he said, and was interested in communication in the form of images.

His recent SWC exhibit, “Image and Prose,” a collaboration with students at Yuma High School in Arizona, was an effort to marry word and image. It debuted at the Yuma Art Center to much acclaim. The project began when Pacheco received student photos from Yuma High instructor Joe Medina.

“I was really impressed with their work,” said Pacheco. “I spoke with Medina and in one conversation we decided to work together.”

SWC lab technician Carlos Richardson said the project was one of the many ways Pacheco keeps his students engaged.

“He’s very interested in his students and their ability to create interesting things and to create projects where his students will be exhibited,” he said.

Pacheco invites talented photographers to share their work experiences with his students. Recent guest included Aurelio Jose Barrera, a veteran photo editor at the Los Angeles Times, and Carlos Puma, a recipient of the World Press Photo Award.

Pacheco confessed that he was always something of a crusader for Latinos and for the art of photography. In 1996 he crashed a photography class at East Los Angeles College and did not like what he heard from the instructor.

“I felt that a lot of his attitude and the things that he was saying were demeaning and arrogant and I said that,” said Pacheco. “If this is the appreciation of an art, I do not want to take this class and I did not allow to this person to prevent me from doing something that I wanted to do.”

Pacheco enrolled in the class despite his feelings towards the instructor, and eventually graduated from Cal State Los Angeles with an MFA.

Pacheco has worked in public housing in L.A. with immigrants at Dolores Mission Church where he did a study of the recent arrivals from various parts of Mexico and Central America.

“I have always been involved in community work,” said Pacheco. “Obviously I gravitated toward issues that involve Latinos, migration issues, and many other things that refer to our community.”

Pacheco has participated in collective projects like “Caja Negra” and “La Frontera,” and exhibited his collection “De Colores,” a commentary on stereotypes. It was exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MOCP) and Columbia College in Chicago. Pacheco said he wants students to develop an appreciation for photography as an art form and a means of expression.

“I want to help as many students as I can to achieve their success,” he said. “When you are coming to my class, you are taking a serious art class.”