Proposal for Final Project
Photography on Location
By Thos Preston
I would like to use
portraiture in my final project. Students on Location could perhaps be one
idea for a title. Not sure. I got this idea from Ivette, our teacher, who
made some interesting suggestions on how I could accomplish this, as well as
links and examples from other photographers.
The main one she suggested is
Dawoud Bey: Class Pictures. I am extremely inspired by him and have read
his book from cover to cover. He takes
photographs of students in a school setting, just like I’ve been doing for over
twenty or more years; i.e. individual portraits with the subjects not smiling
at all. Just looking normal, exactly the
way I like to take pictures. I’ve only become
aware of Dawoud in the last year.
Interestingly enough, I was
looking through the photography articles on FLIP, an app for news, and
discovered another photographer, Julian Germain. His book is titled Classroom Portraits, where he photographs an entire classroom of
students all together in various countries.
I ordered the book immediately, and it should be here by tomorrow.
I personally used Piccaboo to
publish a book of student portraits about a year ago. It shows my style of the connection I have
with my students. As mentioned before, I
don’t like smiley pictures, just that normal expression on the subject’s
face. I titled it “Don’t Say Cheese”, which now seems a bit corny. But the pictures express what I mean.
How will I go about doing
this project? Well, there’s a lot to
think about. Since I teach almost every
period of the day, it will be very difficult to set up posed photographs, which
I am much better at than candid, on the spot exposures, especially with low
natural light sources. I must somehow
connect the subjects to the location (school building) that they are in, in
order to show how these two entities are connected. Usually I am good at taking photos when
students are doing independent work, such as labs and manipulating materials,
but posed portraits cannot be done while I’m teaching.
If I do decide to include
posed portraits, I will have to probably have to do it during the times the
kids are at recess. On the other hand,
taking pictures of the location, Carmalt School, will be easy. They can be done anytime; but the question
is, what about the school should I photograph?
Should a subject be included in each shot of the structure?
Another possible title might
be, “A Serious Moment in the Life of a
Student”, a title I’ve wanted to use for years for a picture book
portfolio. But that depends on the type
of photos I end up taking. I really do
not know at this time.
Below is an example of one of
Dawoud Bey’s photos, and then an older example of one of my photos that is
similar in nature. Any suggestions would
be greatly appreciated. Tschüss!
photograph by Dawoud Bey
photograph by me
