The 20-21 school year will forever be known as the year of the COVID-19 Pandemic. At Greenfield High School I was teaching Photo 2 for the first time. Despite having limited time, resources, and freedom of movement the students really excelled in creating these personal projects. The work they made is an individual expression of what they personally wanted to photograph and pursue. The subject matter and editing is entirely student driven save the occasional piece of advice from their instructor or peers. What you see below is the hard work of the Photo 2 students, scroll down to see their websites and artist statements.
The images show different kinds of sunsets Greenfield can have. To show how nice our town is and to get reminded where we came from, a small town. The sunsets make the images have a warm feeling. The warm feeling makes me feel comfortable like being at home. I enjoy capturing sunsets, they are beautiful and all unique. The images can hold a memory of the night where you took the sunset picture. These images can help change someone’s emotions just by simply looking at them. After having a long day, at the end of the day you can look at the images and see how beautiful sunsets can be. By looking at the images and seeing a beautiful sunset and part of Greenfield.
People look at super models and want to be them because they look amazing. They begin to compare themselves to other people, without realizing that these people are posed and don't always look like that. I am capturing the natural beauty of people and not have them pose to create a beauty standard. Everyone is beautiful in their own way capture beauty in my photos. My subjects are my friends, they are not fashion models, but they are gorgeous and having amazing unique qualities.
I like how lighting effects portraits. I like how different angles and lighting effects and colors change our perception of the person in the portrait. I want people to feel differently about the teenagers in these photos because I want adults to acknowledge the fact that this is what we see every day. We watch our own friends struggle with this feeling and we can’t help them with it or even understand it ourselves.
People don’t know why teenagers look and feel and want to look and feel differently. I’m showing people how we look and feel. I'm trying to show you how frustrating it can feel sometimes to have all this bottled up. Teenagers are in the learning stages of their life and it's difficult to identify our own feelings, so I attempted to show that struggle through pictures.
I want to take photos out in nature and turn them into portraits, my goal is to show the true color and texture of what we have around us. Using different angles and different lighting with natural light. I go hiking often and am amazed by the beauty I see. I want to share my perspective on how I see nature. A perspective I am amazed by. Most of us live day by day stressing over the future and battling some sort of battle. However, seeing nature and the beauty of it is majestic, it reminds us of how big this earth is. We are just small human beings with our small stories that make us who we are. My reality doesn’t exist when I am out in nature experiencing natural beauty in sights. All the stress, sadness, problems fade when I come across such sights, it really puts your life into perspective. There is so much out there that is unseen, and we probably aren’t aware of. I am fascinated by the ocean, since I was 4. My father would take me often and it became an escape from school, family, friends, and distractions. I find myself at peace by its beauty, my goal is to travel the California Coast and visit every single beach and have a portrait of all. This portrait is meaningful to me, this exact view is the first that comes to mind every time I think of the ocean and my father. It’s my earliest memory, the first beach I ever went to and the very first glimpse I got of it.
The images I take are experimental. Not only that but to me they give off this certain feeling, an explainable vibe that I felt when taking them last year. When I look through old containers finding photo albums with pictures of times I can't even remember, I get a sense of nostalgia and happiness. Even if they were from before I was born I just feel happy looking at those old pictures of all my family members. I want to capture that same look and feel of a picture worn by time and memories.
These photographs of cars show their beauty. These types of photos interest me because of how amazing cars can be. I feel like cars take on a whole different meaning to those who admire cars. Most of the car owners I meet with and talk to know the history or story behind their car. these pictures catch my eye. It may just be a picture of a car but to me it's taking a picture of a future classic car maybe and capturing the beauty while it's still there. These pictures of cars have always put a smile on my face. The idea of photographing cars and being able to see them while they still look amazing and beautiful, like the pristine paint. How nice the body work on a car can be. The story it can tell by just looking at it fills my heart with happiness.
This series is about cars.
I love cars.
I capture every single car I like, I collect cool cars. If you like cool cars you should look at my images.
What makes my car images unique is that I take pictures of cars that not a lot of people see in their every day lives and I make sure to capture a pretty photo of the car and it’s features.
I mostly take pictures of cars I see out in the streets and I try to make the best out of the way they are and get a good photo out of it.
I hope my pictures can make people’s opinions on cars not just as oh it’s just a car but I want people to see my photos and want to get into cars and learn about them.
My images are of what I want to take further. I believe there is so much more meaning behind black and white images, if you think and look deep enough. This sequence of images presents what I like, what interests me in photos. The work may be simple but it can mean more than you think. I just find black and white interesting and eye-catching to me. This is Yessenia, my best friend, she is truly the greatest and great to work with.
When I was younger I always saw the world as a bright place we lived in and as I got older the bright colors faded and got duller and duller. I want to be able to capture places or people and be able to edit the pictures and bring the colors in the image back to life.
My images are of how I see the landscapes around me. This work is about how everyone see’s nature differently. This sequence of images present how I like to see nature and how everyone has a different perspective. I want people to pay attention to nature. For example, the way the season change the plant’s color and how they are observing the transition that happens in wintertime. My goal for my work is to show that although we don’t pay attention, we can notice the changes with over that season.
My images are portraits shot during the golden hour because I want people to see their natural glow. Golden hour portraiture can help us see what features people have. The main theme of my work is to take portrait that show people the warmth in their skin. In my opinion, I hope that the pictures I take can give more people more confidence in themselves. I find that it is necessary to show people that there features are unique and they should embrace their beauty. My audience is younger people since they are more insecure about themselves. My work connects to my pierce who are not confident because many take pictures and they aren’t confident on posting them because they feel ugly. I remain convinced that my work will impact people that lack self-confidence.
When I take each photo of plants and flowers I look at them and see different colors of patterns texture. Another thing that I like about it is that I like when I take the photo at the right moment when the sunlight is hitting the plant to create the perfect shadows. I also enjoy being outside. When I'm looking at the plants or flowers out in the open of nature they just seem to bring a nicer frame. The first time I went hiking with my family members there were nice sunset views and so many great looking flowers and different plants to look at. This was the time where I began to like to take photos of any plants and nature. When I came upon a nice sunset and the shadows that hit the right angle I take pictures. This is what I like to do in my free time, being in nature, it just makes me feel good about myself.
The goal of my work is to show that these places can look good no matter the time. I want them to look natural and dramatic but also look great as black and white images. I think people will enjoy and love many different sceneries of the landscapes whether it looks natural or overly edited. My goal is to let the people know that a place could look very different in person than what they saw in the pictures. Landscapes in pictures are different than they are in person. I want to expand people’s idea of the places they could take beautiful landscapes photos. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a pretty location or a very popular place to take your pictures. I like the idea of doing them in black and white and editing them to give it a nostalgic feeling to it.
I enjoy taking portraits, I try to capture the moment when the person is at a good position and when I feel they are confident. The person posing and looking directly at the camera makes me know they are feeling confident and at that moment I know I should start doing my part. At the end of the shooting, me and the person review the pictures, it’s a moment I enjoy as well.
For some viewers, my work appears to be easy but its harder than it looks. The theme for my work is going to be based on portraits of my friends or family and myself, my goal is to show people that even with a phone you can take good photos. This work is about how you can take good portraits with a simple phone. If you have the right idea on who, how and where to take the portraits the whole thing will be easy. My work is for people who want to become a photographer but do not have enough money to buy a good camera but they have a phone. I find it necessary to show people that taking portraits is not too easy but that when you have the right idea you can take all the portraits you want. My beliefs is that my work will encourage people go to out and practice what they love so they can become a better photographer. My goal for this work is for people to see how you can learn and perfect all your photos.
My images are of the back of my workplace. Every time I go in the back to close the door I see the sunset and I wondered to myself how the sunset would look each day. The goal of my work is to show others that they can take a simple photo of the sunset and make it look really cool. The sequence of my images display how easy it is to make an ordinary picture look better. I think people who like photos of sunsets will enjoy my pictures. My belief is that my work will be enjoyed by people. Every time I go to take a picture of the sunset I go out at the exact time to try to make this experiment more accurate. I hope my work can be enjoyed by many people throughout the future.