Black + White Photography and a lot of Snow Days

Holy Snow Storm Batman!! 

When I was a new teacher we had a pretty big snow year, and there was a teacher who had been working at the school for 35 years, and she used to always say, " I have NEVER in all my years of teaching, seen WEATHER like THIS!" I feel like in my seven years of teaching I have seen literally every form of weather so I won't be the person shocked at the weather change in 20 years, but mumbling through my dentures about the weather I survived. 

What does this have to do with Black and white photography... Well, that was the unit that was interrupted by 6 snow days, and oh boy did it show. 

Philosophical question for the Post: How do you keep student interest and focus when their instruction is very interrupted. 

The improvements I know I will have to do is have more examples, and clear reminders of what the expectation are for every day they get back. If there were a few work days in a row, instead of assuming they remember what they need to do, go into a tiny lesson about composition and seeing in black and white. Or start the photo exploration day by going out with them and demonstrating how to change your perspective while photographing in black white. The mistake I made was assuming they could remember all the facts that needed to know after a couple of days sitting at home. 

My biggest take away for students is when planning out black and white pictures you have to realize that you have taken away one of the elements of art(color), so you need to make the other elements(Line, texture, value, shape, and form) work over time in order to compensate. 

The main Artist we looked at was Fan Ho who pretty much mastered the double exposure technique, and his work is stunning for its control of shadow and perspective. 

Their prompts for the assignment. 

Student must turn in 7 images. 

1. 1 picture-- Black and white image of a person or animal, with a blacked out background

2. 1 picture-- Landscape/City/architecture 3. 1 picture -- with selective color4. 1 Picture -- Double exposure5. 3 images-- all you own. No requirements other than black and white

Here are a few of the examples of student work.