Ms. Naomieh Jovin is holding pieces of felt in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other. She tells me that she has a busy schedule today and will have to multitask during our interview. She cuts the felt into near-symmetrical rectangles without the assistance of any external tools, only her eyes and internal measurements. She cuts the felt while mostly maintaining eye contact, only looking down as she begins her incisions. She tells me that she is cutting these to make paper chains for a project she is doing. As we approach the end of our conversation, she has what appears to be around 20 or 30 identical felt rectangles. She cuts these during a fifteen-minute period while also holding a genuine and heartfelt discussion and responding to students’ emails.
Ms. Jovin is the new photography teacher here at SCH, succeeding the universally-loved Pete Capano after his retirement. She is just starting to settle into her new role, so she is not as well-known as Pete was—yet. She is an expert in the field of photography and will bring her skills to develop young photographers at SCH.
Ms. Jovin first got into photography when she attended an arts high school. She requested to focus on fine art, but was instead put into a photography focus. Initially, she was unhappy, but she began to grow to like it.
Ms. Jovin is a first-generation American, with her family coming from Haiti and Cuba. Documenting family events became an important way to share what is happening here in the United States with extended family outside of the country.
“I come from a family where documentation is very important,” she stated. “It was something that just came naturally.”
When her parents sadly passed away when she was in fifth and sixth grade, she grew distant from her siblings. They were all much older than she was, so she really didn’t have much in common with them. She offered to take her siblings’ portraits as a way to be able to spend more time with them.
At school, she began to appreciate the freedom that photography grants, with many different subject matters producing beautiful images. She went from just trying to understand how the camera works in high school to focusing on conceptual art in college. When taking pictures now, she makes sure to “think more deeply about what I’m photographing and the ethics of photography narrative with just cameras.”
This year, she decided to take the photography teaching job at SCH. “It reminded me of what it was like being in high school… It’s a very supportive community,” she said. “The art teachers are in their field, and they’re caring and kind, and they think about the children. That’s exactly what I needed during my time in high school,” she added.
In addition to the new teaching gig, she is still continuing her professional photography career outside of school. Right now, her favorite type of photography is pull-apart Polaroid pictures. “I love it because I don’t have to worry about the post-production part. It’s like, you get what you get. It’s always a surprise, like a mystery. And I like that,” said Ms. Jovin.
At school, she has already made an impact on students in her photography class. “She is very unique and has a great way of teaching.” Jakai Badgett ‘28 says. “She makes class fun and creative,” Wheeler Moore ‘28 said.
Edwidge Danticat, an award-winning Haitian novelist and short story writer, in an article for Aperture, a photography-based magazine and website, called Ms. Jovin’s work “both of its time and timeless.” Using opposing themes within her work, she is able to “create an arresting interconnected call-and-response narrative.”
She still feels like there is more she can do in the field of photography. When asked about her favorite type, she hesitated and said that she didn’t feel like she had explored all of the possibilities that photography had to offer.
She looks to continue with photography for a long time, and is excited about the new opportunity that teaching will provide. “It’s so beautiful here, it’s inspiring too.” She concludes.
