_valerian

Yes things are busy and I am still photographing. I need to make my place look like a photographer lives there for when the magazine comes to shoot some pictures this weekend. That won’t be too hard to do, since I will spend all of Saturday working on portfolio prints.

Kevin asked for updates, EVERY DAY and that is understandable, as this is the most interesting site for him. Which is weird because he is a much better writer than I. So is his girlfriend.

Anyways, I put together a lesson for my Jr. High 3rd year english classes that is based on exposure to good photography. We try to teach the kids english through all sorts of things but I am not too big fan of the textbook/worksheet approach. I used our real sharp copier here at school and copied a bunch of Winogrand and Weegee photos- also some of Frank’s Americans photos too. Laminated them and for the first lesson I had the kids in pairs write stories in English about what they thought was happening in the photos, or what will happen next. You know that one Winogrand photo with the legless man on the street and all those people around him?

Well, actually he is an old man who was carrying his wife in his backpack, and he happend to fall in a hole in the sidewalk. There were some other good ones- I used a lot of Winogrand’s Public Relations photos, which are great for all their energy and implied relationships.
The next photo related lesson I taught is actually what I am doing this week- I bought a photo book entitled “No Title Here” by Jeff Mermelstein. Amazing book with an equally amazing essay about the current nature of “street photo” and snap-shot photography today. The kids lined up into two teams and I held one of his photos (a color photocopy) up. Each student had to say something in english about the photo. From “The sky is blue”, to “I think the blue sky is beautiful”. They really suprised me- “I think that is an apple tree” or “I think he is going to kill the man with that stick” or whatever. If they could say a new sentence they could keep playing, if they repeated a line they were out. The team with the most members after a 10 minute round won. Lots of fun. An important part of photography is the act of describing what you see. I want the kids to have this kind of skill in their own lives, and from description, interpretation. That is harder but it will come with time. I can’t set everyone ablaze with passion for the possibilties of art but maybe I can end up lighting a few candles. (Hows that for fancy writing)