CNY Grants for Arts in Education - art$TART

Salem-Hyde Elementary with Krista Birnbaum and David Politzer

The project’s Big Idea was to use the photographic process to help each student frame the landscape that surrounds them in a unique personal vision. The challenge in this project was to combine the technical process of taking and printing photographs with the verbal and visual language necessary to make an image that tells a story or portrays an emotion.

See examples of student photography.

Inquiry questions:
1) How can an object other than a human face express emotion?
At first, some students resisted this unusual approach to subject matter. But the challenge to make the everyday more dramatic and interesting won them over. They found trees that looked like they were arguing, objects that looked lonely, and landscapes that told stories.

2) What is the language of a visual image?
We heard students using language like composition, point-of-view, background and foreground when they talked about their photographs. More importantly, once the film was developed, we saw that they had thought about these elements, as well as line, value, and light while shooting.

3) How can I express myself through the visual language of light, value, composition, and content?
Most importantly, the students took photographs that reflected their own interests and personalities. Often intuitively, they made decisions about subject and composition. Their journal entries and the final images show their desire to tell stories with their photographs.

The students learned that your point of view makes a big difference.

The students were encouraged to really look at their surroundings. Rather than snap the first image they saw, we asked them to look at an object from several angles before deciding on their final composition.

Left: Student in action and, above, the resulting photograph

Student comments:
“Today we learned about cameras and how they work.  Inside a camera a little hole behind the lens opens up really quick to let light in to take a picture.  If that window was open all the time, the film will turn black and you would not be able to take a picture” 

"I learned about some pictures that had more about them than what they showed." 

“Today my photo class taught me a lot.  I learned that when you take a picture you’ll want an interesting background and descriptive one too, so you’ll be able to tell someone a story about it to understand better.” 

See examples of student photography.