Developing minds

By Mary Alice Garrett

This story originally appeared May 6, 2004 in the News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware.

"Awesome" and "like magic."

That’s how two students described the brief 30 seconds it takes for a photographic image to appear in the developing process.

Carrie Putscher and Gabby Kraiter were among 50 fifth-graders who participated in a photographic project at Brandywine Springs Elementary School.

The project was led by Allan Bernstein, a teacher of the gifted and talented, who has introduced photography to his students for the last 22 years. A classroom teacher for 34 years, Bernstein taught himself photography when he was 12. He started with a Kodak Brownie and got his first 35mm camera in 1968 while in college. Along the way Bernstein contributed many photos to his high school and college publications.

The Brandywine Springs students took their own black-and-white photos using their parents’ and the school’s cameras. They chose any subject they wanted. Subjects ranged from Gabby’s striking portrait of her grandmother to shots of architecture, sports, pets and a pastoral scene by Melaina Hudack.

They brought their film to school and developed their negatives. Next, working in small groups, they made contact sheets and selected the best negatives to enlarge. They printed two copies of the final print — one to display at school and one to take home.

"l think the first session was fun because we got to use all the chemicals. It smelled like vinegar," said Carrie, 11. Her photo was of her karate instructor: A large American flag hung in the background of the picture. Carrie noticed that the pattern of the flag was reversed when she was developing the negative. She wrote a poem on karate to accompany the photo.

"She nailed it," Bernstein said of Gabby who photographed her grandmother, Ana-Minerva Rosiara, who is visiting from Romania. Gabby 11, also interviewed her grandmother and wrote a touching six—page essay about her.

Eleven—year-old Adam Hernandez photographed his trombone and violin. His best shot was of the bell of the trombone. This proved Bernstein’s point that sometimes photographing part of a subject makes a better photo than the entire subject.

Kat Tito, 11, switched gears in the processing stage. After photographing her sister and cousin playing their violins, Tito took one throwaway shot of her cat. Everyone agreed that her best photo was of Frisky on the jungle gym.

"It’s never too late to change your focus — even in the darkroom," Bernstein said.

Drew Maniscalco, 11, also photographed a feline. "I just followed her around" said Maniscalco of Tara.

Lucy Wagner 11, captured a nice action photo of her dogs, Midge and Nelly playing tug-of-war with a stick.

Lindsay Stilwell, 11, shot a close—up of her cairn terrier, Murphy. She rewarded Murphy with a treat after the photo session. "That’s what they want." she said.

All the youngsters liked the processing part when they got to work in the dark. They began by putting their photographs in an enlarger. They were careful to hold the negatives by the edges so no fingerprints would appear on the photos. Bernstein sprayed each photo with a liquid to repel dust. Using the enlarger they projected the image through the negative onto photo paper. They ran a test print through a chemical solution, then compared the test print to the contact sheet. They were very excited during the final stage when photo images appeared in just 30 seconds.

That’s when Carrie shouted "Awesome" and Gabby added, "This is pretty cool. lt’s kind of like magic."

The final step was to put the photos in a wash tub, a refitted kindergarten sandbox on legs. Several students gathered around the tub to show off their prize photos.

Gabby took numerous photos of her grandmother before settling on one taken in natural light by a window

All the students wrote essays to accompany their photographs. Bernstein said the essays were "absolutely outstanding."

Gabby’s essay began with her grandmother’s childhood memories of hometown Sibiu, Romania. Following World War II, Rosiara’s family changed its last name to escape deportation to Siberia by the Soviets. Although trained as a chemical engineer, she worked for 35 years as manager of a bakery in Romania.

Melaina wrote a fictional story to go with her photo of a bridge at Carousel Park. It was about slaves escaping to Canada.

"lt’s just a little bridge in the woods," she wrote. "The path opens up to a big clearing in the field. That field is Canada. They don’t have slaves in Canada."

"People think children can’t write. These kids can write well," Bernstein said.

The essays were graded based on the Delaware State Testing Program for writing. The matted photographs and essays are on display in the school halls until September.