TEAM OO-17: Photography

In the Northwest School, we have about thirty art classes which are broken into four big categories: visual arts, dance, theater and music. Every student is required to take two art classes every year, and required to complete all four categories by the end of senior year. Out of all these amazing art programs in the Northwest School, my favorite class is Photography class without any doubt. I have taken both Beginning and Advanced Photography classes and I have learned many different ways to add more to the photography than just taking photo by doing various projects and experimenting with cameras and while the developing process. We also learn about many famous photographers and look at their works and sometime do research and presentations to classmates.

In Beginning Photography class, we take pictures with black and white camera and we develop them step by step in a dark room, because exposing the paper in the sunlight will ruin the process. When I first joined the class, I was not expecting to take black and white photos and learn how to develop a photo step by step. It was shocking but I remember how exciting and satisfying it was to do all the work in order to produce a single of photo. We live in a society with high-technology, although there are countless advantages to it, I think that we often don't even think about the process we need to do in order to create something and we often don't even have the opportunity to experience the joy that comes with it. In that sense, this photography class did not only taught me how to develop a black and white photography but how to appreciate many things we tend to forget, Moreover, this class require creativity. There are many different ways to make the white and black photography interesting, such as painting part of a photo and spraying the developing solution on the paper instead of soaking it so that the photo will only be partially developed.

In my junior year, I took Advanced Photography class. In Advanced Photography class we have the choice of taking black and white films as well as color films. We can even take photos on our phone, use the photo-shop program on computer to edit. I worked with more technology than I did when I was in Beginning Photography but it was really interesting to see what the computer can to do to make them interesting. I was consistently amazed by the technology in Advanced Photography.

(This is what the class look like)