What is Photography?
Given that we live in an age where photography has become so ubiquitous, perhaps the idea needs no introduction in a general sense. However, while the volume of ‘selfies’ taken on daily basis continues to spiral upward exponentially, the art of contemplative, carefully considered photography is beginning to drown under the weight of impulsive smartphone snaps. When the elements and principles of fine art are considered in the context of photography, a tool emerges not only to capture a literal portrait of our surroundings and events, but to contemplate line, shape, form, texture, colour, pattern, contrast, and emphasis as phenomena in their own right as concepts worthy of consideration; it allows us to look upon the world with new eyes.
Materials needed when working with photography
Despite great leaps forward in accessibility as a result of the digital age, working with photography in schools still poses challenges with regards to accessibility because of the cost of digital cameras. In iPad-equipped schools, students have access to a camera for in-class work, but any work outside of school is difficult to implement when socio-economic-status is a factor. As such, making arrangements for access to a full class set of devices that have cameras is an easy way to ensure nobody is left out.
Techniques for photography
Keeping it simple is a key to success when introducing students to photography. The technical element of photography becomes very important in advanced practice, where fine control over the different elements of what is captured is needed. However, today’s technology allows us to capture high-quality images with unbelievable ease. This makes having students explore the principles of fine art from behind the lens extremely easy – all that is needed is conceptual scaffolding and inspirational examples, and all the students have to do is point and shoot.
With a contemplative fine art approach, photography is such a powerful way of telling stories.
of evoking emotion:
capturing the immense beauty and complexity of nature:
considering socially constructed meaning:
and of reducing an impossibly complex human reality into manageable, if incomplete, terms:
As well, when doing iPad photography, digital photo editing becomes an effective and vast means to add creative flair and polish to our captured images. The following example was edited with the free Photoshop Express iPad app from Adobe.
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Edited: 