Project by: Emma Diamond (10th Grade)
Project Advisor: Susan Now
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Shauna Finn
Final Product (e.g., documents, images, video, audio, poster, display, etc.):
These are some of my favorite pictures from the 3rd trimester.
Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):
During the first few weeks of my project, I met with Susan and we discussed how the project would change because of quarantine. Susan showed me many inspiration projects and images to help me decide what I wanted to take pictures of. By the end of these discussions, I decided I wanted to use my digital camera to take pictures of the people I was with, places I saw, and objects around my house.
Below are some of the links that Susan showed me during these weeks:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/2020/03/these-photos-capture-a-world-paused-by-coronavirus/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/24/isolation-portraits-the-faces-of-quarantine
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/04/living-inside-brazil-largest-apartment-complex-amid-coronavirus-pandemic/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/21/us/coronavirus-photographers-diary.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_NN_p_20200421&instance_id=17817&nl=morning-briefing®i_id=115161582§ion=whatElse&segment_id=25631&te=1&user_id=88d5200675a9135684545d170dc5922b
I also began shooting during the third week.
Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):
During the second three weeks, I took pictures with my digital camera and put them up on the google classroom page for my project. During our meetings, we would open the photos I took and pick which ones we liked the best. We would also discuss new ideas for pictures based on the ones I already took. I also show black and white film during this time, but was unable to develop anything.
Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):
During the last few weeks of the project, I continued to shoot and meet with Susan every week. During this time, I decided to try to experiment with reflections in my pictures. I used mirrors and the reflections in everyday objects for these images. I also continued to shoot film during these weeks. During the last week, I began a project where I took a picture of the same thing throughout different times in the day.
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Trimester 2 Reflection:
Final Product:
I am continuing this project into Trimester 3, but here are some photos that I have so far:
Final Reflection on Learning:
Throughout this project, I learned many new things about using a manual camera. I learned more about the settings on the camera and how settings affected my images. For example, I learned the importance of my choice of f-stop. When I took photos of Grand Central Station, I utilized what I had learned about f-stop by choosing appropriate f-stops for certain desired results. For photos that I only wanted a small portion of the image to be in focus, I chose a lower f-stop and for photos that I wanted most or all of the photo to be in focus, I chose a higher f-stop. In addition, I learned how to be more successful in the darkroom. When I had negatives that were too dark, Susan taught me how to use filters to make the images come out more clearly when printing. I also learned how to burn and dodge parts of images to make a certain section either more or less dark.
Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):
During the first few weeks of my project, I worked with Susan to build inspiration for my pictures. I researched many different photographers that took similar pictures to the ones that I wanted to take. Two of the main photographers that I decided to use for inspiration were Vivian Maier and Berenice Abbott. Below are some of their photos that I used as inspiration throughout my project:
I created a document with many photos that I wanted to either recreate or use as inspiration throughout my project. These are just 6 of my favorites.
Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):
During the middle few weeks of my project, I began shooting as much as possible. I tried to take my camera with me as much as a could so that I could capture any interesting things I encountered during my everyday life in New York City. In some of my photos, I used strangers as my subjects so I had to build up confidence in order to ask them if I could take their picture. This was a challenge for me throughout the project, but as I kept shooting I became more comfortable with asking people. As I shot rolls, I developed them so I could see the negatives. I also began printing negatives at the end of the middle few weeks of the project.
Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):
During the last few weeks of my project, I began printing a lot in the darkroom. This part of my project is when I was able to practice my darkroom technique. Some of the rolls of film I shot during the middle portion of my project came out too dark so I was challenged to make the images come out while printing. I not only created work prints, but also made a few fiber prints. Although I printed a lot in the darkroom during these three weeks, I wasn’t extremely happy with most of my prints. This is why I have decided to continue this project in trimester 3 so I am able to create a final product that I am really proud of.
