Adjectives
Sparkly, bright, quick, true, quiet, clean, fixed, perspective, unbiased
Supporting Materials
Lights or flash
SD card or film
Darkroom or computer
Tripod
Safety & Health Considerations
Darkroom chemicals can be dangerous if handled with bare hands or splashed.
Accommodation Possibilities
There are remotes that you can get for digital cameras. Also, alternative more basic cameras can be made from items like an oatmeal canister.
Appropriate Age Group & Behavioral Expectations
K-5 students will be able to safely use and maintain materials. They will use photography as a means of imaginative play making or storytelling. They are typically less concerned with adult ideals of aesthetic images. Digital cameras work best with this age group.
6-12 students will have a more developed understanding the elements of art. They might be more interested in photographing subjects through themes. They will have the ability to safely use a darkroom for film photography.
Brands and associated quality/cost
Students can use the cameras on their phones at no additional cost. Point and shoot digital cameras are common in high schools. Alternatively in middle or elementary schools, ipads or Chromebooks can be used. Cameras and film can be very expensive.
Artist Resource and Project Idea
Stephanie Syjuco is a research-driven photographer who explores the tension between the authentic and the counterfeit. She works in photography, sculpture, and installation that features both hand-made crafts and digital editing. Recently, she has focused on how photography and image-based processes are implicated in the construction of racialized, exclusionary narratives of history and citizenship.
My project idea is inspired by Syjuco. Students will create an image that relates to their lived digital/political/social culture. The image/photograph can combine a variety of both craft and digital modifications.
Studio Engagement
My studio exploration of photography was inspired by the prompt to take black and white photos of uncanny sights. The images I took were on a walk I take to a local Starbucks. The three images I produced all speak to nature's prevalence to prevail despite urban environmental constrictions.
Portals and Pathways
My research-based artistic exploration revolves around the theme Portals and Pathways. A natural connection with portals are doors. Doors—frequently ordinary in appearance—are often depicted as the symbolic representation of a magic portal in media. The doors that we enter and exit through every day separate states of outside and inside, private and public, warm and cold, etc. I was interested in the idea of depicting 'portals' that I encounter on a regular basis.
