Compelling images of public servants taken by local middle school students and inspired by the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly are being displayed this month at the Washington Mutual financial center in Massapequa.

In September, as part of a student project called "Home of the Free," Kennerly teamed up with Washington Mutual, The New York Historical Society, and more than 400 seventh and eighth graders at 76 metro area schools, including Alfred G. Berner Middle School, to spotlight their local public servants at work.

The result was poignant images by these up-and-coming photojournalists on display alongside Kennerly's work in a New York Historical Society exhibit that opened Oct. 29. As an encore, the work of each and every student is being prominently displayed in 76 unique local exhibits throughout the month of November.

"The program reached many kids in the classroom, and select students in our area were given the opportunity to go out with a camera and learn by actually doing what Kennerly does," said Gwen Pressley of the Washington Mutual financial branch in Massapequa.

"Mr. Kennerly told the students that he would consider the project a success if they noticed and photographed something for the first time that they had looked at every day," Pressley said. "One example is the image submitted by the students at Berner of Amy Cruickshank, one of their teachers, demonstrating to the students the correct way to kick a soccer ball."

Kennerly, who has been capturing images of history for over four decades, has spent the last year photographing people in the forefront and behind the scenes of government, exploring the diverse and vital roles public servants play in supporting communities for his upcoming work, Balance of Power (The University of Texas Press). This work inspired "Home of the Free: A Student Photojournalism Project, where middle school students received a mission to identify, research and photograph public servants at work.

As a result of the project, the students learned about the people who keep their communities thriving. Through their eyes, and their cameras, the young photographers vividly represented those unrecognized public servants who keep the wheels of our communities in motion.

With cameras in hand, teams of up to five students from each school canvassed their communities in search of potential subjects. By photographing the work of public servants, the students began to explore the ways in which government touches their everyday lives. Additionally, Washington Mutual donated a Canon digital camera, along with a $500 honorarium, to each participating school.