Abstract Photography Unit
2020: HS Digital Photography Class
As we transitioned to remote learning in 2020 I created this abstract photography unit so that students could work with materials that they had at home. We began by looking at a history of abstract art and photography and identifying some of the elements that artists used to create abstraction: line, color, shape, form, and gestural marks.
Students viewed the work of Lauren Zoll on PBS’s “The Art Assignment: Take a Photo of a Reflection” and were challenged to take photos of reflective surfaces to incorporate color, pattern and form.
The class then used devices and subjects they had at home to shoot abstract photos. Their investigations included glass, lights, food coloring in water, food, structures, patterns, closeups, and ICM (intentional camera movement).
photos by upper school digital photography students, march 2020
Ornithology: Science and Art May Term Course
MS/HSOrnithology May Term
This weeklong interdisciplinary course combining wildlife photography and ornithology was a collaboration with our Upper School biology teacher. Our 6th – 12th grade students participated in a citizen science project, visited the Cornell Ornithology Lab and Montezuma National Wildlife refuge, and practiced telephoto photography using DSLRs in the field.
photos by middle and upper school ornithology may term students, 2019
Empty Bowls Annual Event
Middle School Ceramics Empty Bowls Fundraiser
My Middle School ceramics students have created, organized, and run an Empty Bowls event as part of their elective ceramics course for the past seven years. Empty Bowls is an international grassroots project to fight hunger, personalized by artists and organizations on a community level. We have donated 100% of the proceeds from our silent auction and raffle fundraisers to local and global organizations like Foodlink, Ugandan Water Project, and Save the Children.
Members of the class research charitable organizations, write letters to local artists and businesses explaining their project and asking for donations, produce communications, and run the event itself. Last year, we photographed all of our items and created an online auction –students counted down the final hour with a raffle drawing and virtual reception.
Ceramics students create their own work to donate to Empty Bowls and invite other students, faculty, staff, and administrators to donate pieces as well. One of the class’s most fun experiences is offering after-school workshops to teach their teachers how to make a hand-built ceramic bowl for the auction.
photos of work created and donated by middle and upper school students and members of the community
Studio Art Project:
Self-Portraits
Various HS Classes, ongoing
Self-portraits can be a powerful, visual way for my students to express themselves. Using photography, drawing, painting, or mixed media, members of my classes can present themselves in a way that that they wish to be seen while investigating anatomy, composition, emphasis, and color.
Goals of a self-portrait project may include presenting oneself as a character, creating a narrative, establishing a mood, or conveying information. All of these students made sketches or rough drafts and participated in critiques as they developed this work.
drawing, painting and photography by upper school students, ongoing