Imagine handing sixty third-graders individual cameras and telling them to show us adults how they see the world. That was the core instruction behind the assignment I gave to the entire Hillsboro third-grade last December as a guest artist/parent. The images they brought back took my breath away. From an old barn glimpsed through a frost-coated bus window, to a grandmother deep in shadowed evening light, or the blur of a father's hands skipping across a piano keyboard, these children show us life in Middle Tennessee as they know it - up close and personal.
Why this particular project? After a lifetime of photography, both still and television, here's what I know: Every time I look through a lens, I am forced to stop and examine the world. To give it my full attention. To be right there, in the moment and study it, absorb its details. To notice color, light, balance and how it all makes me feel. Maybe it's the way the sun plays off a dusty window that catches my attention, or a child's face, or the ice pattern on a fallen leaf. Then I get to share my unique window on the world with others.
The process of photography teaches me to appreciate the world around me and see things others rarely do. But it also reminds me that I have my own way of seeing the world. And so do others. I wanted the kids to get a taste of this whole process while their minds are young and fresh, before some adult has told them how a photograph is "supposed" to look and clouded their own unique window on the world. To learn to really see what is in front of their eyes. To discover their own personal vision - and finally, learn to trust it. On a more personal level, I was searching for a peek into the wonderful minds of children that bypassed verbal and language development. And still, with all that said, the images they came back with left me in awe.
I used throwaway cameras, purchased and processed by the school, as a way to "even" the equipment playing field, and eliminate technical know-how. This was a lesson on seeing, not how to work a camera. I emphasized being free with the camera - doing things like, climb a tree with it, or lay in the grass; shoot at dawn, dusk or night; while you are running, chasing your sister, or your mom is yelling at you; get in your horse's face and don't worry about slime on the lens - HAVE FUN with it. A throwaway is more portable, but best of all, it eliminates worry about equipment and encourages this kind of freedom.
I started with a series of talks over a couple of weeks that included tips. Things like, get close, study the light. Ask how it makes you feel, and leave out what you don't need. Find an unusual angle. None of those eye-level, 'Say Cheese' photos.
They were told to shoot five subjects on the one roll: Lonely; Peaceful; Just Plain Cool; How Your Holidays Smell; and a Family Holiday Tradition. There would be no wrong pictures. If they said it was Lonely, it was Lonely - from a tiny bug to an entire sky. Be wild and creative, I said, and expect that lots of their photos wouldn't work. But a few, or even just one, might turn out really cool. And that's all we were after.
When the photos came back as small prints, we sat down one-on-one, chose favorites, then played with cropping - learning to eliminate the unnecessary. Finally, I scanned them, did some basic digital darkroom fix-up, then printed one final enlarged photo per child.
The resulting collection of sixty photos is an amazing sample of life through a child's eyes - direct, brilliant, and stop-you-in-your-tracks fresh. Images that look like they came out of an upscale New York art gallery, not Leiper's Fork third-graders. If you'd like to see them for yourself, a Gallery Opening, with all the artists in attendance, will be held on Monday night, February 4, from 6:30- 8PM, at Hillsboro School in Leiper's Fork. The show will remain hanging through early March.
For of an explanation of the True Colors project, please read the article below. This article, along with a dozen photos, appeared in the TENNESSEAN newspaper in Nashville, TN, in February, 2008, in their online version as well as the local Leiper's Fork Life print edition.
TRUE COLORS: A PHOTO PROJECT BY and FOR KIDS
Written and Created by Jennifer Moran
