Working with Photos

Anna Esteban, Llicència d'estudis a St Helens, 2005-06

To make photomontages
To use a viewfinder and record their observations,
to look the work of photographers and illustrators,
to look photographs and see how are they composed,
to explore ways of framing image,
Investigate and use drawing, collage and photographs to communicate ideas and meaning

Viewfinder
Material for collage: papers, glue, scissors, pencil and colours.
Postcards, family photographs, newspaper, magazines.
Camera optional.

Story books showing: Interest layout and different approaches to illustration.

How to use a viewfinder. Play a guessing game: Show the children a small part of a photograph and ask them to identify what is happening in the picture. Gradually reveal some more of the picture by widening the frame around it. Encourage the students to use visual clues, as shapes, colours, lines, actions and explain their reasons for the answers.

Cutting up and reassembling a photograph is a little like making your own puzzle. This process will produce a new image which can be intriguing, bizarre or funny.

Photomontage is a collage made up of a number of photographs. It can often look more like pictures of dreams than of everyday life.

To record the observations and sketch what they see thought the viewfinder. For activities 1 and 2.
Write the keywords.

Activity 1:
Ask students to pretend to be a camera. Ask them to go around the classroom or school with the viewfinder and looking through with an eye closed. Encourage to explore what happens when they move closer or further. Finally ask them to frame something that interested them and make a picture of it.

Activity 2:
Give children part of an image from magazine photograph and ask them to fix it to a larger sheet of paper. Ask them to draw what may be outside the given image. Then compare theirs and the picture.

Activity 3:
Students will need some images, photos or postcards. These material need to be cut up, using scissors or a craft knife. There are many ways in which the pieces that you cut can be reassembled. Photographs can be cut into squares, straight strips or curves.
Curved strips can be shape into a fan and this technique is very effective with photos of figures in action.
Another project works with two images that complement each other. Cut both pictures into strips, and intersperse the two images.

Activity 4:
Make a photomontage. They will need some magazines and scissors or craft knife. It is about exploring the patterns you can make with repeated shapes. Look through the magazines and find an image, a figure or form that is easy to recognize from its outline or silhouette. Cut around the outline pressing down hard on the magazine and cutting through several other pages to get a series of identical shapes. You will also have a number of negatives shapes. Then, students can use both positive and negative shapes to make their collage. turn some over to see the image at the back and use them as well.

Finally display the children's works and describe them

The good thing about this techniques are that they can make lots of collages.
They can try and make a big composition , working as a team.
Use cameras and make photos, then use them for activity 3.

Craft Knife
Reassemble
Straight
silhouette
Shapes: square, curve
Pattern

- Review the children work as it progresses. Discuss the stages of making their drawing, collage or photos.
- What they want to show in their work?
- Identify what may change in their work for future task?

Sessions	Two or three
Focus	To make photomontages To use a viewfinder and record their observations, to look the work of photographers and illustrators, to look photographs and see how are they composed, to explore ways of framing image, Investigate and use drawing, collage and photographs to communicate ideas and meaning
Material	Viewfinder Material for collage: papers, glue, scissors, pencil and colours. Postcards, family photographs, newspaper, magazines. Camera optional.
Resources	Story books showing: Interest layout and different approaches to illustration.	Books: "The Young artist's Handbook", by Anthony Hodge Webs: The Standards Site
Talk about	How to use a viewfinder. Play a guessing game: Show the children a small part of a photograph and ask them to identify what is happening in the picture. Gradually reveal some more of the picture by widening the frame around it. Encourage the students to use visual clues, as shapes, colours, lines, actions and explain their reasons for the answers. Cutting up and reassembling a photograph is a little like making your own puzzle. This process will produce a new image which can be intriguing, bizarre or funny. Photomontage is a collage made up of a number of photographs. It can often look more like pictures of dreams than of everyday life.
Sketchbook	To record the observations and sketch what they see thought the viewfinder. For activities 1 and 2. Write the keywords.
Doing	Activity 1: Ask students to pretend to be a camera. Ask them to go around the classroom or school with the viewfinder and looking through with an eye closed. Encourage to explore what happens when they move closer or further. Finally ask them to frame something that interested them and make a picture of it. Activity 2: Give children part of an image from magazine photograph and ask them to fix it to a larger sheet of paper. Ask them to draw what may be outside the given image. Then compare theirs and the picture. Activity 3: Students will need some images, photos or postcards. These material need to be cut up, using scissors or a craft knife. There are many ways in which the pieces that you cut can be reassembled. Photographs can be cut into squares, straight strips or curves. Curved strips can be shape into a fan and this technique is very effective with photos of figures in action. Another project works with two images that complement each other. Cut both pictures into strips, and intersperse the two images. Activity 4: Make a photomontage. They will need some magazines and scissors or craft knife. It is about exploring the patterns you can make with repeated shapes. Look through the magazines and find an image, a figure or form that is easy to recognize from its outline or silhouette. Cut around the outline pressing down hard on the magazine and cutting through several other pages to get a series of identical shapes. You will also have a number of negatives shapes. Then, students can use both positive and negative shapes to make their collage. turn some over to see the image at the back and use them as well. Finally display the children's works and describe them
Developing the idea	The good thing about this techniques are that they can make lots of collages. They can try and make a big composition , working as a team. Use cameras and make photos, then use them for activity 3.
Vocabulary and language	Craft Knife Reassemble Straight silhouette Shapes: square, curve Pattern	Skills of observation and recording: viewpoint, viewfinder, drawing, camera, photograph Visual images: photograph, picture, illustration, painting, collage, sequence. Design: plan, outline, shape. Illustration: illuminated, pictured, decorated, drawn.
Assessment	- Review the children work as it progresses. Discuss the stages of making their drawing, collage or photos. - What they want to show in their work? - Identify what may change in their work for future task?