Photography Week 2

Week Two of the Photography Summer Program:

In week two of the summer program we worked with K-club (ages 11 and up), SEAS (ages 15-17) and Girls group (ages 9-14.) In the girls group we started by introducing each other and talking about the final project we would be working towards. As a group we looked at some photography projects relating to the woman's body image. The girls brainstormed some ideas for final projects of their own and eventually settled on the topic of “Family.” We did an activity outside, shooting specifically focusing on composition and lighting. We then came back inside and took a look at some of the photos the girls had taken and talked about each of them in relation to lighting and composition. We related this activity back to the importance of goal setting.

With SEAS and K-club, we started week two by sharing some of the project ideas they had thought of over the weekend and we talked about what the purpose of documentary photography is. We continued to discuss basic photojournalism, documentary and travel photography theory. The youth were introduced to the concept of “Othering” and as a group we talked about how photography often concentrates on what’s different about a people, place or culture. They were also introduced to the concept of “Imagined Geography” we talked about how photos change the public perception of a place. The youth discussed what the imagined geography of places like India or Africa is. We talked about how Regent Park is portrayed in the media and how tourism is affected by the imagined geography of a place.

In pairs the youth talked about their project ideas and suggested ideas to their partner. We then went through everyone’s project ideas as a group and each kid wrote down specific shooting locations and specific shots they could take. We related this activity back to the importance of goal setting and project task management as a life skill.

We talked about how often people are afraid of having their photo taken and sometimes people will even approach you and get mad. So at the start of the next days workshop we went outside and role played a conflict in which someone came up to you and got mad that you took a photo of them. Through the role play the youth learned some ways of diffusing. In turn they learned about conflict resolution and problem solving as a life skill. We then split up into two groups and shot photos relating specifically to the youth's project ideas and took some time to come back and look at them.