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Year 9/10 Photography

In this unit students will engage in the  key forms of photography where   we will explore the foundation of photography through Analogue , contemporary photography through Digital and portable devices such as phones and Ipads.   Students will complete some  theory  and practical tasks which will be recorded and presented on their own  photography website  Students will also complete a folio of photographs to be submitted for the ART  exhibition

Traditional Analogue Photography 

 

Photographer as Artist assignment

 

Composition

 

The SLR Camera

Photographic exercises in 

: Interpretive 

 

: Motion

 

: Portraiture

: Landscape 

: Photo Essay 

: Photo Journalism 

Students will complete  

 

Website

Photo exercises 

Photography Calendar

 

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7  Reasons Why Photography Matters

 

1. Our photographs tell us what is important to us

When you ask people what possessions they would rescue from their burning house, one of the most frequent answers is the photograph album or a computer with their digital images. When in panic mode it’s interesting that we would probably grab photos rather than valuable jewelry. This impulse to save our recorded memories is a powerful force which tells us much about the role of photography in our lives and our constant desire to distil our most precious moments into images.

 

We preserve the important events and people in our lives. The ceremonies of birth and birthdays, marriages and anniversaries, holidays and new houses are all recorded because they matter. Photographs are our personal story, a timeline of our lives filled with faces and places that we love. They are our story, which we can share with others. The hundreds of images come together to form a narrative of our lives.

2. Photographs are part of our legacy

Once I remember sitting in a train as it passed a playground where children were standing to attention for the annual school photograph. Across the front row sat the teachers and behind them, hundreds of children neatly preened and uniformed. For the briefest second the entire assembly was motionless. We were passing just as the photographer clicked the shutter. Suddenly, as if in slow motion, the huge group scattered as children escaped their enforced immobility. The neat rows dissolved and broke into individuals who were now kicking footballs or huddled in friendship groups. None of those children realised that the photograph was probably going to outlive them. A couple of generations later it might surface among old papers in an attic and someone would search for granddad among the fresh young faces. Photographs matter because they freeze moments of our lives which pass unremarkably and which seem to have little importance to us at the time. The significance, however, may be for others who search for the person we once were or the places we once knew. They can be small pieces of a jigsaw that complete the larger picture of our lives.

 

3. Photographs allow us to share and to communicate.

Images are much more than a simple record. Photography speaks to the best and most generous part of our human nature – the desire to share what we find beautiful and interesting with others. You only have to look at Flickr and a multitude of photo sharing sites to see this impulse at work. Millions of people sharing their personal, passionate and sometimes quirky take on the world around them. Our images can involve a world of strangers in our life. How powerful is that?

 

4. Photography makes us artists

Photography allows us to express ourselves through an art form. We notice a beautiful landscape or an old man’s lined face and we want to capture it. Each of us will have a different reason to do so but, essentially, we want to create something. However humdrum our nine-to-five lives may be, the creation of an image makes us an artist. It feels good.

 

 

 

5. Photography is a complex language

Our images can express joy and sorrow, wonder and sympathy. Every human emotion can find a place in photography. For many years I never valued my photographs of overcast landscape because I believed that there was no beauty in a land with muted colours and a leaden sky. I wanted the land to be alive with colour and vibrancy. However, lack of colour in a landscape makes you search for other things that often go unremarked in bright sunlight. It could be a symmetry of hills or a tree standing out from a forest of thousands. I have suffered from depression for most of my adult life and photography gave me a language to express feelings for which I can find no words. We have a miserably poor vocabulary for mental illness and photography has allowed me to develop a visual language for some of the most difficult emotions.

 

6. Photography has the power to move us

Photographs can grab our attention and speak directly to our emotions. Nick Ut’s photograph of a crying Vietnamese girl whose clothes have been burnt away by napalm embodies the power of a single image. At a more subtle level, we can learn lessons about a whole range of emotions. Grief has the power to wash away the luminance and chrominance of our lives. There is no magic way to restore them at will. We have to be patient. But while waiting we can search for the shapes and patterns that are still there in the greyness. They will lead us back to colour eventually. At moments of great sorrow in my life I have used images to express that hope of returning colour.

 

Photography, at its best, is a powerful language which speaks to our emotions. It allows us to tell our story and show others our framing of the world around us.

7. Photography  is an art  open to everyone

Photography is a great leveller, it doesn't discriminate , its open to everyone and embraces anyone to be an Artist. It doesnt require

the user to be a talented painter, sculpture , mathematician , scientist or writer . Anyone with a desire to create, to  express themselves, to record an important event , to capture emotion  - can be a photographer and with commitment and practice can be a great photographer 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Setting up your Website  

Students will commence the unit by  setting up their own photography website using creative templates offered by the Wix website  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Go to Wix.com  and register for free 

   When asked what type of website you want - Select photography 

   There are 4 pages of website samples-  as you roll your mouse over each one - select view to  examine each website 

   All the images will be replaced by your photos  and all the text and menu item names will be changed to  present your exercises  

   

   Chose one website that you like and begin experimenting  how to change the title / menu items /  You will need menu items for the     exercises below 

 

 

 

 

  Photography   Tasks 

 

 

   Exercise   One     : Interpretative 

   Exercise   Two     : Composition 

   Exercise   Three  : Motion 

   Exercise   Four    : Portraiture 

   Exercise   Five    : Photo Essay 

   Exercise   Six      : Photographic Folio

   Exercise   Seven : Calendar  

   Photographer as Artist 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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LINK : The SLR   CAMERA

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