in some photo classes i’ve taken, this is usually one of the first assignments and is considered to be basic. i think this tends to convey the idea that photograms are simple. this could not be further from the truth. photograms can be complex and challenging.

last year, i started with basic photograms at the beginning of the year and i was not very satisfied with what my students had come up with.  so later in the school year, we revisited the photogram. i had my students create photograms using a variety of layers. they had to use a quote as a source of inspiration. the quote could come from anywhere, and pretty much say anything as long as it wasn’t something that’d get me fired. as part of the lesson, i also taught my students how to create high contrast images in photoshop.

if you’re interested, here’s the lesson, and here’s the photoshop tutorial. (right click and click <save as> to download)

here are the requirements for the assignment:

1. quote/piece of text that was important to them.
2. imagery on tracing paper
3. imagery on printer paper
4. imagery on acetate
5. imagery on opaque black construction paper.
6. all 5 were combined to create 1 photogram.

here are some of the samples– some of the samples include the layers that my students used in some of the samples.

sample 1. this one in particular was impressive because this student took the time to draw the details of the gears in the frame and even cut out all the little sprockets.

sample 2.

sample 3.

sample 4.

sample 5.

sample 6.

sample 7.

sample 8.

peace.

peace.

some things that i learned over the school year…

1. i need to be better about making my lessons less daunting in terms of concepts and meaning-making, or at least making it so that students are able to find what they want to say because they want to say it, and not because i want them to make it. because so much of my personal work is about personal reflection, i think i have a tendency to want my students to achieve the same amount of meaning in their work. i have to remember that most of my students aren’t going to be artists and that i should allow for that, but also be able to give them a valuable art-making experience.

2. i have to stay on top of working with students who have learning disabilities and be able to direct those students in a more welcoming and understanding manner. not that i was mean or anything, but i recognize that many of these students will need a little more direction and support than students who may not need help.

3. students who are lazy and unwilling to participate need to be identified and more efficiently managed. whether its by removing them from the class or if they need to be held more accountable with appropriate consequences, i need to be more conscious and better equipped mentally. i had too many students that i feel i allowed to remain in the class when it was clear that they had no intention of participating appropriately in my class which led to a lot of wasted time and effort for me, as well as to other students who were more deserving of my attention.

4. the zine project needs to be seriously evaluated, if not removed from my curriculum. i really liked the concepts and ideas, and i hope that my students learned how to use Adobe Photoshop, but in the end, i think that it was way too much and too frustrating, both technically and conceptually. i need to either break it down and make it a project that has smaller blocks of time spent on it over the year, or just make it a group project where each student provides a page to the zine.

5. more technique needs to be taught. i need to focus more on the how-to, but also need to be better at the why?

k. here are some photos of some of my students work.

papercutting was a lesson based on the work of Peter Callesen, Jen Stark, and Patrick Gannon. Students were asked to recreate/re-tell a story or myth.

“diaristic” or emotion based drawing using pastels. for this work, we looked at the work Edgar “Heap of Birds” Hachivi.

peace.

i had students read about zines by reading excerpts from Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine? and showing them the movie A Hundred Dollars and a T-Shirt. then we had a discussion about various topics on gender stereotypes and how they influence how we see the world and we see ourselves. here’s a list of the questions that i posed to them:

• What does it mean to act like a man? What words or expectations come to mind? (e.g., men don’t cry, men are tough, men are strong) Name at least three.
  What does it mean to be ladylike? What words or expectations do you think of? (e.g., girls are polite, girls are neat, girls are passive) Name at least three.
• Where do we learn these gender roles? What people teach us these stereotypes? People in entertainment? Sports? Media? Where else in society do we find these messages? Name specifics and use at least three examples.
• What names or put-downs are directed at boys when they don’t fit the stereotypes? Or What names are women called if they step out of the stereotype box? Use at least three examples.
• How do these labels and names reinforce these stereotypes?
• How does it feel when we are called these names?
• What do you think the person who is using these put-downs is feeling?
• What are some situations where you may be pressured to “Act Like A Man” or “Be a Lady?” (e.g., for boys, friends may tell you to try a cigarette or participate in a risky activity, to prove that you’re tough, or for girls, you might be prevented from playing a certain sport or you might let someone bully you into doing something that you don’t want to do, because it isn’t “ladylike” to argue or be assertive.)
• How might these stereotypes lead to violence? (e.g., boys might be expected to ‘fight it out,’ rather than ‘talk it out,’ and girls might be expected to put up with bullying, rather than be assertive.)

their zine itself is open to any topic on any gender that they want to focus on. I’ve been on the unit for about a week now. so far i think its been pretty good. i hope that having the discussion and posing these questions to my students will help them. but we’ll see i suppose. i’ve given them an outline for their zine, such as criteria for text and images, layout, where they can get their images, and even how they will bind their zines. we’ll see how it goes. if anyone wants to see the actual lesson plan, let me know, i can email it out.

peace.