Your work for the next week:

I am away for you guys until Thursday.

This is a group email to all the year 12’s in both my senior classes.

I feel like you are all working really well on your starts to your folio’s. There are no where near enough blog posts happening however.

By the end of Tuesday, i would like to see a new blog post from every student. I also want you to specifically comment on a blog post from 2 other students in your class. It does not matter if they are in year 12 or not.

How do you eat a whole elephant? Piece by piece - the same way you make your folio happen.

Your blog is worth credits too and it is a safe way to keep your work for when you lose your book. It happens.

I will keep an eye on who is posting and when and respond to each of you. I am expecting you to use your blog to seek feedback from me and your classmates too.

Welcome to 2016

Hello all you photography students. If you are reading htis you are likely from one of 4 senior classes of about 20 students here at Hornby High School. Your classes are multi levelled across the 3 NCEA levels, but united by theme. These themes are still in development and not yet set fully in some classes. That is ok, it is a part of the process. The Subject based blog is a way of connecting all the students in that subject together; Photography has 11 candidates from 3 classes.

If you are wondering why I am using a blog that already has stuff on it from 2013, it is because I seemed to have had 3 photography blogs all with similar resources and ideas on them, and it seems a bit pointless to keep repeating myself. Some of our blog posts this year will include re-blogging previous posts. There are good pieces of information in them so feel free to read the older ones.

At this point, you all should have started your own blogs. I would expect to see an introductory post about YOU.  Who are  you, why are you studying photography and how did you contribute to us developing an overall class theme?

From there, you should be talking about your concept. This is not set in stone, but concept is the basis of good, intelligent Art.

This week we will be collating all the photography blog links from across the four classes onto this blog, so that you can see what students in the other 3 classes are potentially doing too and contribute to their learning as well.

Your next focus following this will be your first Artist model study, and how to use a D-SLR. This is going to be exciting and very cool work is going to develop from our classes this year.

Notes from the first Group Critique for 2013

Critique (with the Year 12 students only) went for 1 and a half hours and they did alright. The following are notes from this critique. They are here as a record for the students themselves and could hopefully offer more insight into their work than you could glean from their blogs at the stage they are in right now. They are notes only and somewhat informal.

12 photography notes from the critique: June 12^th 2013

Zusje – not using the blog, subject matter is still life, had a thought to use her cactus which she has named Dorothy, but it doesn’t work. Her work looks like Vanitas so far. Doesn’t have many objects within it though. White space is used very well. Wants to extend her subject matter to include a candle and a bottle shaped like a skull. Has research Vanitas for 2.1 Painting already, so has a sound understanding of this genre to help get her stared in photography.

Thinks her photos so far are a bit weird and is not convinced. Likes the ones on her board so far.

Marissa – blog is going alright, changing her concept and putting up more photos that are in line with this. Is ok with the technology side of things. Needs to add gadgets for followers and reading list.

Overall concept is her relationship with her Nan before she died. Her presence. With starting again, still going to use the shadows and use them to indicate her presence. Has a teddy bear that belonged to her and is covered in beads wants to incorporate pictures of Nan when she was younger. Beads come off so could be useful for shadows too. 

Samuel – ok with the blog so far and is following 5 others. His work is about himself and his life with his family. Although willing to blog about it to quite an in-depth level, would rather people read what he wrote than he spoke about it out loud in class. All students to go online and comment please.

Danielle – thinks she has too much writing on her blog – I don’t agree. It looks good. Has included her note taking pages and visual thinking which is great. Overall concept is one of feminism and girly stuff, girls being decoration and treated as objects. Recommended reading “the Beauty Myth” by Naomi Woolf. Has used a jewellery holder which is a headless female figure. Taking away the head removes something of the personality and sense of person over object so this is an apt choice. Lots of lace and fabric. Could look at Rozi Demant for further inspiration, though she is a painter, she uses a similar voyeuristic kind of view of the feminine subject. Highly sexualised imagery. Probably blocked by the school system. Could use the lace as a ‘lens’ to extend ideas, re-shoot altering view points, looking down, looking up, voyeuristic nature of lifting the skirt and key holes…

Terence – struggled with getting started with the blog as he was away when we really got started with it. Is getting on top of it now, but is yet to publish the first post. Overall concept is his love of music and guitar. First three photos do currently lack a relationship. Wants to hold onto using the cover of passion and warfare from Steve something-or rather who inspired him to play. Teacher discussion about holding onto something as a subject for the wrong reasons e.g. Zusje’s decision to drop Dorothy from her work, which was the right decision… there is however, potential for Terence to use the album cover and the vinyl album as an object to create geometry, the grid and be a device rather than an object, therefore combining those objects with the guitar is more relevant.

Brooke – 80 views on her blog which is great so far, needs to figure out how to follow a blog and adding some gadgets to make it easier for others to follow her too. Overall concept – childhood memories, fashion vintage, inspired by her Granddad who is a photographer. Could be a very Art deco theme to the work if she wanted to, how could she incorporate op shop pieces of clothes, items on clothes hangers, think Drama room props for instance…Great Gatsby?

Hazel – struggling with the blog technically, but is keen to keep going – Samuel to help her out. Chose objects that mean something to her personally. Box, rose, family photo. Some successful photos using the drama room lighting rig. Editing using layers and colour/black and white areas within the same photo – these look lovely so far. Aperture is used well and could be used to more effect. Suggestion that she becomes a part of the photos as a presence, her shadow or her form but out of focus while her main subject is in focus either in front or behind her. Suggestion that she look at one of Danielle’s artist models – Madalina Wasiczek. Suggestion to try and use patterned cloth in the background but make sure it is out of focus and becomes just shapes to toy with.

'Ailine – needs to put more images and ideas on the blog, got side-tracked with the Michel Tuffery images she saw and changed her direction significantly. Now working with her own cultural identity, specifically Tongan/Samoan aspect of her heritage. Lava lava photo which is the main one on her block has good depth and lighting and contrast. You cannot tell it was shot in the corner of the art room. Could you use yourself interacting with the drum and wrapping the lava lava as well? Self-timer or someone assisting. Ailine suggested that she play around with the shutter speed whilst drumming playing with hands being blurred and being focussed and clear.