Harry Wang ’27, Harley Zhong ’26, and Ian Gu ’26 pose for the camera, with their cameras.
In 2024, Harley Zhong ’26 and Ian Gu ’26 launched their campus photography initiative, “Your PA Memories.” Now a prominent club with a wide campus presence, Your PA Memories documents a range of events, from sports competitions to cultural nights.
Initially recognizing a gap in opportunities for photography at Andover, Zhong and Gu hoped to create an inclusive platform to promote student talent and artistic growth in the Andover community.
“The original idea was to create… a space and a platform for photographers or videographers to post their work. I feel like there weren’t that many opportunities on campus for us to show our work… [we want] to help those individuals find their spot in such a big community,” said Zhong.
According to Zhong, major campus events often receive the most coverage, with regular occurrences and personal stories being overlooked. Student-led initiatives like Your PA Memories bridge this gap by providing a platform for voices that might otherwise go unheard. Such efforts aim to guarantee the representation of a diverse narrative, whether it be through documenting sporting events or providing outreach for clubs.
“At our school, we have The Phillipian, which records major events, but a lot of other stuff gets neglected–the smaller events and stories of individuals. We are there for them to help them record their stuff, or we can express something for them. We go to a lot of sports events… we were at the Launchpad [club] meeting, [and] we did a video for them,” said Zhong.
When starting the initiative, one of the greatest challenges the team encountered was promotion and recruitment. Against all odds, the non-profit persisted, hiring several new photographers. Ever since, the project has been gaining momentum.
“It was really hard actually, because no one thought that this was gonna work, because we provide a free service, and it was hard finding photographers, so at the beginning, it was just really me and Ian, who is my current roommate. Last year he lived right across me, so we figured everything out, and then we just kept doing it until more people saw what we were doing, and then now we have two and three more photographers joining, and then more people got to know us, it’s gotten easier,” said Zhong.
Gu shared a current project he is working on titled “Making the Invisible Visible.” The project will focus on the often-overlooked staff members at Andover, such as Campus Safety and Commons staff, sharing personal stories to bring a deeper appreciation to their journeys and contributions.
“Our plan is to share stories of staff members at PA who not a lot of people recognize for their efforts. So, mainly Campus Safety, Commons staff, people like them, and we’re trying to share their stories to the public because we feel like they have a lot of interesting stories about their backgrounds, and I think the Andover community would be very interested in learning more about how they came to be here,” said Gu.
Ethan Liu ’26, a recent member of Your PA Memories, expressed his passion and fulfillment from the work that he does alongside peers, finding joy in his clients’ satisfaction. Liu emphasized the importance of personal moments and appreciating the precious memories made on campus
Liu said, “I think everyone wants their own best memories to be captured, and that’s why our name speaks to Your PA Memories. We feel that our time in this community is so valuable, and there are so many based on campus and events that are not documented, which could be, so us providing that facility, and seeing everybody really happy about getting the photos and stuff, I mean, it’s so heartwarming. It makes us equally happy.”
