seeing what they see: the DM Botanical Garden

On a recent field trip with the youth participating in the photography project, we visited the Des Moines Botanical Garden. Always a good “escape” from winter before spring fully arrives, it was fun to find new subjects for the youth to shoot (not to mention that the warmth was a welcome change for a few of them after having been less enthused about being outside in the cold the week before!).

Prior to boarding the van, we looked at some online images and talked about what makes a strong floral photograph: paying attention to color and line, looking at shape and form, trying numerous perspectives and compositions, bringing heightened awareness to lighting (illumination, backlighting, and shadow), and seeing how to use foreground and background elements to support – and not distract – from the main subject of the image.

Several of the youth had been to the Botanical Garden before while others had not. As usual, it was fascinating to see where the youth went and what they found to photograph. Some went wide – wide views and wide expanses – including a large view of the space. Some experimented with the reflections of the garden in one of the pools of water…

(photography by L)

…and were drawn to the almost optical illusion of the triangles in the dome…

…or used the lines of the palm tree leaves to contrast with the angles of the dome.

Others went closer in, to create more intimate shots of groupings of flowers, such as these orchids hanging from one of the rock walls.

(photography by S)

One particular photographer, M, truly found herself in her happy place. She had already established herself as one of the photographers in the group who could often be found getting up close and personal with plants and flowers in some of the other excursions we had taken around the neighborhood. Seeing her in this realm, in an area where plants and flowers abound, was to see her lose herself in that wonderful land of creativity.

Accepting the challenge to see flowers from a new perspective, M didn’t always stay with the typical bird’s eye view and opened her eyes to see beauty where others may not have looked, such as the underside of a flower…

…or bringing attention to the beauty of the really small things…

(photography by M)

…or photographing a flower that showed both the shadow within and the light on the outside…

(photography by M)

…or bringing attention to the beauty in the really small things…

(photography by M)

…or surprising us with nature’s hearts and swirls.

(photography by M)

I think we could learn to take their lead – and move through our days looking for, expecting, and finding – moments of surprising beauty! Where might you find it?

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(On Wednesday, April 25th, CFUM will host their annual “Meet the Leaders” event at the Viking Theater on the campus of Grandview University. Some of the young photographers’ strongest and favorite images will be on display and available for purchase. For more information about the event’s details, go to CFUM’s event website.)

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Support for “Developing the Photographic Voice of Youth” is provided through an Art Project grant from the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Matching funding is provided by Children and Family Urban Movement (CFUM). 

seeing what they see – experimentation

photograph by “N”

One of the things that appealed to me the most about the idea of working with youth this fall was my own curiosity: how would that which the youth see and capture differ from what I typically see from the adults I have mentored online or the other adults with whom I have connected in camera clubs and conferences? Many of the adults who participate in online mentorships enter into that space after already having some degree of mastery over the craft of photography. There are exceptions, of course, but there often seems to be a bit of a threshold that adults want to reach first before they are willing to put their work out there into the world to be seen by others. My questions were many:

What are the subjects that the youth would find in their world to photograph?

Would they be the “expected” subjects of photography or would there be evidence of a different, new, and refreshing way to see the world?

What differences and similarities would there be between images created by adults in the online world and images created by youth I would see on a near-weekly basis?

What would the youth see as “beautiful” and worth capturing in their own lives?

So to begin, in one of our first sessions, we talked about the idea of beauty. The youth were asked to name things of beauty they saw in the room around them. A painting, a sculpture, the cover of a book, a quote on the wall.

photograph by “I”

They named typical, expected examples of beauty. Then, I asked them to name some of the ordinary things they saw in the room. The table, the chair, a paper clip. Finally, I asked them to see if they could name anything that was both ordinary AND beautiful. In the process, I picked up the small, ordinary metal paper clip and asked, “Could THIS be considered beautiful? Do you think it would be possible to create a photograph of this paper clip that made it look beautiful?” There was a bit of silence and then M said, “Yes.” And with her typical quick words and enthusiastic expressiveness, she continued,

“Sure. You know what I’d do? I’d figure out a way to set this paper clip on end, then using some light from the background, I could cast a shadow on to something so there would be this paper clip – but also a bunch of cool light and shadow.”

Yep. Beauty in a paper clip.

(On a side note, right then, I challenged her – and all the others – to see if they could EACH create a beautiful photograph this year which included a simple, ordinary paper clip. I’ll keep you posted.)

In that same session, we spent a significant portion of time outside with our cameras. Brick buildings with reflective windows, a parking lot, an expanse of green space with some trees, and a busy city street were in our view.

photograph by Shari

Earlier that afternoon, we had spent time talking about perspective – about seeing something not just from one view, but from all sorts of different views. Using the ordinary table around which we sat, we talked about all the different ways we could see it – from above, from the side, from underneath, from close up, from further away, from an angle, from one side, from the other side, and so on. Their challenge, once outside, was to take at least five pictures of each subject they chose to photograph – each picture different from the previous ones. They were to photograph the subject from different perspectives: from the side, from the top, from the bottom, zoomed in, zoomed out, and so on.

What was fascinating to see was how the youth not only accepted the challenge of seeing potential in ordinary, unexpected subjects and from different perspectives but, as a whole, they were seeing the “familiar” world they knew well with a new lens – literally and figuratively. They experimented. They played. They bent over, got low, sat down, and leaned in. Several climbed on a barrier wall for different views, and one girl sprawled out on her stomach to get “the” shot.

photograph by Shari

Another photographer, lying on her back in the grass, added an element of surprise to an image by including her feet, in bright white tennis shoes, in the corner of the image instead of merely photographing the tree above her head.

photograph by “C”

Beauty and interest were seen in the fingers and camera of a friend…

photograph by “S”

…in a brittle, fallen leaf on a rusty pipe…

photograph by “A”

…in the imperfect symmetry of asphalt split by a parking line…

photograph by “M”

…in the rusted bracket, nuts, and screws by broken concrete and rocks…

 

photograph by “S”

…in red and green fallen leaves interspersed between an optical illusion of lines of light and shadow…

photograph by “A”

…in the reflection of a shadow as one photographer flipped her hair & spread her fingers while standing above a shallow puddle of water…

photograph by “A”

…and in an ordinary pile of fallen wet leaves.

photograph by “S”

As I returned to a few of the questions that were at the forefront of my mind:

What are the subjects that they would find in their world to photograph?

Would they be the “expected” subjects of photography or would there be evidence of a different, new, and refreshing way to see the world?

What would the youth see as “beautiful” and worth capturing in their own lives?

I could see that the budding photographers were only beginning to scratch the surface to surprise me with the subjects that they would discover. They were definitely seeing the world in a different, new, and refreshing way, and their definition of beauty – and my own – would be expanded far and wide.

Shari Miller

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Support for “Developing the Photographic Voice of Youth” provided by the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Matching funding support provided by Children and Family Urban Movement. 

 

seeing what they see – the beginning

For the past two years, I’ve been doing quite a bit of online mentoring and have had the opportunity to be a presenter at various conferences and photography clubs. Though the venue has been different most of the time, the audiences and the mentees have been of a similar demographic: adult. This fall, though, I have expanded that circle to include younger photographers. Whereas previously, I had been working exclusively with those who often have quite a bit of experience (and gear!) under their belts, I was looking forward to seeing the world through the eyes of those who are just starting their journey with photography.

Though I’m also working with ASAP (the After School Arts Program) with 3rd-5th graders in the Des Moines Public School District this fall, this particular column will be devoted to the middle and high school youth who are participants in the gender-specific programs called Whyld Girls and Backyard Boyz at Children and Family Urban Movement (CFUM) in the River Bend Neighborhood.

(photograph by Shari)

At the end of September, I met with the five girls and five boys who will be part of this photographic adventure during the school year. The project, supported by an Art Project Grant from the Iowa Arts Council (a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs) and matching funding from CFUM, is intended to combine photography, mindfulness, and presentation literacy while developing their artistic (and human) voices.

(photograph by “C”)

After introductions, theirs and mine, and an overview of what they could expect throughout the year, I distributed the cameras that would be theirs for the duration of the year. The energy in the room increased significantly when they finally had the chance to open the camera bags and began to work with the camera – getting the strap on, finding out where the battery and the SD card go, where to find the charger, and the most important thing – the power button!

(photograph by “M”)

Equipped with a few basic instructions on using the cameras on auto or preset settings (for now) and how to allow the camera to focus fully before pressing the button, they were off in the classroom for the last few minutes of the session. Mostly, they were photographing one another – discovering the fisheye setting that allowed them to distort their friends’ faces into enlarged balloons – finding the creative setting that would automatically take their image and make four “creative” photos from one shot. Their only guideline on this first day – and for the first week – was to experiment:

See what happens when you try different settings.
See what happens when you zoom in and out.
See what happens when you get close or far away.
See where you see beauty that you want to photograph and share with others.
But most of all? PLAY. (It’s only digital memory, after all!)

Be watching for upcoming blogs sharing more experiences & images from the youth in this project:
“Developing the Photographic Voice of Youth”

(photograph by “S”)