Photography 1 recently started working on new projects. While still under a pandemic, they’ve been approaching new ways to work completely digitally versus their normal darkroom experience.

Their first portfolio was to look at the world through the ‘lens’ of the Elements & Principles.  Students initially learned about the Elements of Art and the Principles of Design in their Art I: Foundations class, but it is new to consider how they are applied in photography. 

After preliminary assignments, teaching students the logistics of photo editing apps and programs and how to transfer and store digital images, students brainstormed and researched their photographic analysis related to their portfolio topic.

Once they formulated their ideas, they took pictures over the course of a week, filled out a process log to document their development and participated in a Schoology discussion board, for digital peer critique. While some of the process looks different this year in the hybrid mode, photography students are still getting the full range of an artistic experience. 

“Through our portfolios, students develop a body of work that takes them through the entire creative process, cultivating inspiration and exploring a variety of visual ideas.” Art teacher, Jody Spriggs says. 

Photography 1 students like Amani Poindexter, got to work on photography in a new way, working off their laptops using programs and understanding the works of art through editing. Amani enjoys the class, but there are some pros and cons. 

 “ I enjoy the freedom that we have working all digitally in the class and being able to work when I am able to. The only thing that I dislike is that we are not able to do everything that we would be able to do,” said Poindexter.

She turned in a couple of pieces into her portfolio, one being a picture of the downtown view at night,

Poindexter said “the inspiration for that picture was looking at color and using the movement of the cars to show how fast life is moving.” While this teaching environment is still new to both the students and the teachers, the students still enjoy the process of taking and editing pictures despite the changes that had to be made due to COVID-19.