A photograph allows people to see the world from someone else’s perspective, sometimes a point of view that’s otherwise overlooked.

That is essentially what the Shooting Beauty Project is all about.

Durham photographer Courtney Bent, of the award-winning film “Shooting Beauty,” held a workshop at Phillips Exeter Academy in November, giving students from the school and the disabled students they volunteer with a camera and an opportunity to show their artwork.

The resulting exhibition of photographs is on display through Dec. 31 at the academy’s Frederick R. Mayer Art Center, along the outside walls of the Lamont Gallery.

“The photos they came back with are really, really amazing,” Bent said. “The photos are so interesting and really, really powerful.”

There are unique takes of the brick and glass of the architecture on the school’s stately grounds, scenic views from Swasey Parkway’s gazebo, details of the season’s last remaining colors in the landscape, and portraits of the students.

Christina Collins, a junior at Phillips Exeter Academy, said in her artist statement that her disabled partner Haley Call’s photographs are unexpected and “completely different” from hers. Rather than shooting a tree straight on, Call aimed through the braches up toward the sky. As opposed to centering a flower, she got up close to photograph some of its details.

Each of the roughly 10 academy students who took part in the project wrote statements about the experience and its results.

Meg Pendoley, a junior, wrote about her reluctance to become close to someone with a disability for fear that it would remind her of a family member she lost. But, she said, a local teen with Down’s Syndrome helped her see the importance of every relationship. “It doesn’t hurt to see Molly’s limitations anymore; I know she is more than these,” she wrote.

Darby Henry, a sophomore, wrote about the slow progress she made with her project partner, who wouldn’t even make eye contact for months. “But by the end of the project, it was as if with every smile she gave the camera, she said, ‘I am beautiful,’” Henry wrote.

Best Buddies is a national non-profit program that encourages students to befriend and mentor people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The academy’s chapter was started 20 years ago by now principal Tom Hassan.

Since the inception of the program in Exeter, hundreds of participants have come together every week to get to know each other. Because the school doesn’t have special education programming, it reaches out to the community.

While many people have limited exposure to those with disabilities, Bent said the students in the workshop were comfortable and open—a testament to the program’s success.

The exhibition’s opening reception on Dec. 9 featured a screening of “Shooting Beauty.”

The film won Best Documentary at the 2009 New Hampshire Film Festival and the 2009 Audience Awards at both the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival and the Independent Film Festival of Boston.

The film documents the evolution of the first photography workshop that Bent started for a group of individuals with disabilities about 10 years ago. She helped the photographers, many of whom had very limited ways of communicating and moving, to shoot, develop, and edit a gallery exhibit exposing the unique perspective of people who are not often seen for who they are.

“They don’t want to be defined as disabled. They want to be seen as a person just like me or you,” Bent said.

One participant, a former pastry chef who was diagnosed with Hutchinson’s, a condition that causes the body to deteriorate even while the brain remains strong, was wheelchair-bound. Bent set him up with a camera that could be operated between the knees, where he has the most strength, and he took more than 1,000 photos.

The first project took years to complete, and afterwards, Bent was approached by people who were interested in doing something similar elsewhere. She’s now able to conduct less intensive workshops, like the one at Phillips Exeter, in a matter of hours.

“It’s an honor to be with people when they finally find their voice,” she said. “I became kind of addicted to it.”

The work provokes thought and starts conversation on the ways society in general views beauty as “looking perfect,” Bent said. She said the people with disabilities that she’s worked with have an internal joy and a positive outlook on life, despite their challenges. “That’s real beauty,” she said.

Bent said her parents were both in the fashion industry, which puts emphasis on physical beauty. “I never felt like I fit in that world,” she said. “I was drawn to people who were outcasts or didn’t fit into the norms of society,” she said.

She found that people with disabilities tended to accept her immediately and made her feel like she was part of community.

Bent acknowledges that her earliest work carries some stereotypes, like a sense of isolation that reflects pity, but her experiences have changed that point of view.

“They are no different than us. They want to be seen. They want to be valued members of society. They want to participate,” she said.

To learn more about the Shooting Beauty project, see www.shootingbeauty.org. To learn more about Best Buddies, visit www.bestbuddies.org.