Dear Reader,
I have a couple faded prom photos taken of me in ‘70s-era pastel tuxedos with ridiculous lapels and piping, but nothing from the events themselves.
I’d love to know that galleries of photos taken by professional photographers exist to keep alive the era when my worries were small and my hair was enormous.
Fortunately for students and their families in MLive’s eight newspaper markets, we staff dozens of proms with our photojournalists, who capture the joy of the marquee event of the school year.
The glamorous clothes, fancy cars and youthful exuberance make a recipe for great photographs to commemorate the events.
"Every Flint prom I have ever attended feels incredibly special," said Jake May, MLive photographer for The Flint Journal. "These students go all out. It's their last party before graduation. It's a big day. The memories you see being made are priceless."
Our photojournalists will cover nearly 40 proms this spring, said J. Scott Park, photo editor for MLive and a longtime photographer for the Jackson Citizen Patriot. This weekend is the heaviest of the month – 10 proms – but no one is complaining.
“Because of COVID, we have missed that opportunity for a couple of years. It feels good to be back to doing it,” he said.
A great deal of preparation and thought goes into capturing the joy.
“It’s a lot more work than meets the eye. We strive to have as many students in the gallery as we can. It takes time to gather and process all of the images in a quality manner,” Park said. (You can see the results of that work so far this spring on this MLive page.)
There are some must-shoot moments at every prom: The “red carpet” entrance and the raucous dance-floor scenes. But our photographers do a great job of shooting memories being made all around them.
“We strive to capture true moments that show the fun of the event and the fashion. We look for the funny, sweet and tender moments,” said Park.
Everyone who has been to a prom, especially those who go on to prepare their own children for proms, knows that it’s not just an event for the students or the high school. It takes a village, as they say, and it’s a spring rite that is part of the fabric of a town.
"For me, it is about community,” said May, from The Flint Journal. “It is why we do what we do. It showcases why we live here and this is one of the most important days in their life."
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The galleries of photographs from the proms we cover are free to view online. However, print and digital subscribers to MLive.com enjoy the benefit of free, unlimited downloads of high-quality copies of the photographs, which in turn can be printed and kept for personal use. To subscribe, click this link.
John Hiner is the vice president of content for MLive Media Group. If you have questions you’d like him to answer, or topics to explore, share your thoughts at editor@mlive.com.
