TROY LANDREVILLE

Times Reporter

Rockers Rod Stewart and Ron Wood wrote that 鈥榚very picture tells a story.鈥�

Combine thousands of portraits with an environmental theme, and then display this photo collection at the rear entrance of, and this forest of faces has quite a tale to tell.

Over a period of several months, roughly 30 senior photography students at LFAS worked on a large scale, 76-foot by 14-foot photo mosaic mural for the exterior of the school.

This is a unique mural; it features 17,500 faces in the mosaic arranged to form an image of the

Each student, teacher, staff was photographed five times with different facial expressions, and then each image was reproduced several times.

The mural is meant to raise awareness of the physical and environmental benefits of nature, and the important role people collectively play in protecting it.

The mural project was sponsored by the Canadian Scholarship Trust, and a few small businesses in Fort 91原创.

鈥淔irst of all, I was so excited when they (the students) were taking the initiative. It was their idea. I just supported them,鈥� LFAS photography instructor Donna Usher said.

鈥淚t takes so much to make something like this actually happen鈥� that when it was actually on the wall, one of my students said, 鈥極h this is really happening.鈥� I鈥檓 so proud of my students.鈥�

Usher said this project 鈥渨ould not have happened without the support from the Butterfly Effect community.鈥�

鈥淭he student leaders involved in the mural were a part of cross-curricular learning community where students work collaboratively to guide their own learning and support the learning of others,鈥� she noted.

Usher said part of the premise around the project was to be inspired by local issues.

The students chose nature deficit disorder and the , which in 2013 was saved from a bulldozer, thanks in large part to a $2.5 million donation from the Blaauw family to Trinity Western University.

鈥淭he kids got connected to the forest,鈥� Usher said. 鈥淲e had a photo show to raise some money for and the kids really felt passionate about saving it (the ). So when this came up we were like, 鈥榦f course.鈥� This is a little school being involved in something really quite a bit bigger than ourselves, and taking part in it, and acknowledging it.鈥欌��