new work by Daniela

I took this photo because I was playing in the playground and Dayana was under me I told her to stop. Also because it looks mysterious and sad, and half her face has light and half doesn’t.
I like this photo because I think that it shows that the garbage on the ground can hurt people and the environment. Also because it shows that garbage in the ground is hurting the person, which is the shadow.





The trees and earth save us. Don't cut it and don't damage it=( I like the emotion of the squirrel in this photo that why i chose it. Daniela

Metropolitan Museum of Art

We took a nice long field trip to the MET to see the Lee Friedlander exhibit of Olmsted's parks. Then, we went to Central Park and tried to recreate our favorites. It seems like the environment is becoming our theme. We honor and cherish it in our photographs. We have hundreds of photos to edit this week, but they're coming soon! Above are our our favorites from Friedlander.

Street Photography!

To collect photographs for our artist books and zines we have started to talk walks around the school, it's been loads of fun and the students' photographs are amazing! Do you think these are interesting photographs of community? What kinds of emotions do they display? Leave us comments, please.

"Shaddie Movimientos" By Natalie

"Chains" By Dayana

By Alan

By Edwin

Student Photo Essays

All the students have created photo essays in PowerPoint. The themes were family, immigration, cultural identity, and place. Each photographer labored for a long time editing their photos, deciding which ones to use, and then learning PowerPoint. Here I have put just one slide of each student's work, but their photo essays each held 5-10 slides. They were amazing and I am so proud of their hard work!

On Feb 4th we went to Long Island City High School to present our work to two other photo classes. We had a fun time even though we had to leave early, but we look forward to presenting more work to even more students in Manhattan in May at the Urban Arts Festival!

By Charmi


By Dayana


By Edwin


By Josephine


By Daniela


By Caryin


By Daihana


By Alan


By Brenda


By Nicole



By Maria


By Kevin


By Joshua

Field Trip! Lower East Side Tenement Museum

We went to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum! Click on the link for the website, where there are some really cool online activities.

We did a short walking tour of the area, but it was COLD! So we headed indoors for snacks and fun in the Confino Apartment where a costumed interpreter dressed as teenage Victoria Confino circa 1916 welcomed us as though we were newly arrived immigrants and taught us a few things about how to adapt to America. We were told our clothes looked funny and we would need to get some new ones or else we wouldn't fit in! We couldn't believe she had no t.v., no washing machine, and had to sleep on the kitchen floor!

Below are some photos the students took during the trip, click on them to enlarge. We shared cameras so it's hard to know who took which one. Also, we weren't allowed to take photos inside, sorry!

When asked to write about the most interesting thing they learned, the students wrote,

"The most amazing thing I learned at the museum is that there had to be 9-10 people per apartment and two families per bathroom." Alan

"In this trip I had so much fun. I think the most interesting thing to see was the acting because she is talking in other way. She is showing us odd things. I think in my mind this is the most fun and important thing." Tasnima

"

"What I learned on the trip was about the neighborhood and the things I heard about immigration life in the history channel video." Atenas
The most interesting thing I learned was about the stories on the LES, and the pink retail building." Dominique

ESPN reporter/editor

On December 3, ESPN The Magazine reporter/editor Ian Gordon came to the Photography Club to give an interview workshop! Students worked on open, closed, and follow-up questions. The idea is that we're going to start interviewing our family members and then, next semester, people on the street, so we wanted an introduction to asking questions. In the follow-up class we tried out our newfound interview skills by hitting up the guitar class, where we interviewed and photographed the participants. Check back soon for those photo essays!

Open-Ended Questions: Questions designed to get more information about the interviewee, or questions that do not have a “yes” or “no” answer or a factual answer; instead, you’re asking for opinions or feelings. These questions usually begin with WHY and HOW.
Closed Questions: Questions that lead to YES or NO answers or factual answers, like What’s your birthday? Do you like the Yankees? These questions usually begin with DO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, or HOW MANY?
Follow-Up Questions: After someone explains something that interests you, ask a question that you didn’t write down. Be flexible! Examples: Why did you feel lonely? You said you didn’t want to come here, why?

Recently we've been inspired by more of Joseph Rodriquez and the intense work he's done documenting gangs in East L.A. He put together a photo essay/documentary called East Side Stories. We talked about the difference between writing our own text and interviewing people to get good quotes to accompany our photographs.


We were particularly struck by this photograph because the mom doesn't seem to mind at all that her daughter is playing with a real gun. We talked about gangs here in New York and about how little we know. These photographs allowed us to see and learn about a world so different from our own. The caption reads: The morning after a rival gang tried to shoot Chivo for the fourth time. Chivo teaches his daughter how to hold a .32-caliber pistol. Her mother looks on. Boyle Heights, 1993.