Making Connections: Teacher Uses Camera to Spotlight Students' Successes

A teacher uses his camera to focus on the positive things his students do – on the field, on the stage and all around campus.

Taking photos of their extracurricular activities is Randy Kriewall’s way of making connections with students throughout KHS, not just in his math classes.

“It’s just fun to see the kids’ reaction. I think they feel good about what they are doing when they see themselves,” he said. “Anybody who’s a teacher does that – you try to find ways to make connections.”

Kriewall, 49, of Manchester, stumbled upon his unique way of highlighting students’ successes much the same way he fell into teaching.

He hadn’t planned on being a teacher when he went to Missouri Southern State University in Joplin on a basketball scholarship. In fact, he graduated with an accounting degree. But he soon realized accounting work was not for him.

While he was looking for his next career, a friend told Kriewall he should try substitute teaching because the pay was good “and you can just sit there and read the want ads.”

“So I bought a paper,” Kriewall said.

But instead of reading the classifieds, Kriewall discovered he loved working with students. So he went back to school to get certified and wound up at Kirkwood High School 20 years ago.

That first year, Kriewall encountered some “challenges” in his classes. He had picked up photography as a hobby and just happened to take his camera to a freshman football game one day. When he posted the photos in his classroom, he was surprised by the response.

“When those kids saw them they were much better behaved,” he said. “It just made some kind of difference.”

Since then, Kriewall has taken hundreds of photos of Kirkwood athletes, at first giving them as gifts to his graduating seniors on the basketball team, which he coached from 1998 to 2006.

“I remember wishing I had stuff from when I was in high school, but they were from my dad’s Instamatic and I was off in a corner,” he said.

He was disappointed at first that his photos didn’t look like the ones he saw in Sports Illustrated. So he took some intensive photography workshops during the summers.

Now students, coaches and parents seek him out for senior photo packages. He regularly records school events such as the dance recital, the Turkey Day game and prom.

But some of his most popular photos are the posters he creates for teams, clubs and events at the high school, as well as several other area high schools. The posters feature the members of a team or a group – from the basketball team to the orchestra to the yearbook staff and the fashion design class.

Sometimes the posters play off a movie theme or are inspired by college posters. One year, the girls’ golf poster was based on the HBO series “Band of Brothers.” A boys’ soccer poster was inspired by an old baseball card.

“I like doing it, the kids like it,” he said. “I’m kind of biased, but I think we have the best kids around.”

Last year, Kriewall began blogging about his photography both on and off campus.

“I like the idea of being able to write something with the pictures, too,” he said.

Recent blog posts detailed a trip he took to help in the cleanup efforts after the tornado in Joplin, MO, and this summer’s Jeremy Maclin football camp at KHS.