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Enthusing Young Minds
The Caravan Darkroom
The caravan is being transformed into a mobile darkroom to be able to travel to schools & youth groups etc. This will help break down barriers such as travel and cost thus providing an opportunity to learn the magic of darkroom printing and building on the experience and skills learnt during Enthusing Young Minds Project.
However, I now need your help! We need to raise funds for materials and to finish the darkroom conversion.
The Project so far...
Phase 1
Taking the photographs,
learning to develop the negatives, learn and develop skills in photography, chemistry, math, literacy, patience, resilience, self awareness and being able to focus.
Phase 2
Using the photos taken in PHASE 1 to create Anthotypes. Developing an awareness of alternative processes to be more sustainable, eco friendly and cost effective. Additional skills learnt are, biology of plants and some basics of botany while further developing skills like patience and resilience.
Phase 3
The young artists now switch places with the teacher. The teacher becomes the student and the students become the teachers. Presenting their own initiated research, the young artists submit a brief for the project director to complete. They can then respond to the fulfilled brief with images of their own, forming a photo conversation.
Aircraft by J.Doyle, aged 9.
Free Reign
BP, Saltend by I.Riley, aged 11.
Free Reign
If I could be anyone, by M.Doyle, aged 17
See Me
Describe yourself, by D.Welham, aged 16.
See Me
My favourite space by T.Keogh, aged 13.
See Me
My hero by C.Huntley, aged 15.
See Me
The Girl on the Swing by K.Handley, aged 15.
Remember When
The Gnome by B.Battle, aged 12.
Remember When
Leaf imprint into beetroot coated paper by Chris G Smith
Two Icons printed into bramble and buddleia coated paper by Megan Doyle (17yrs)
Enthusing Young Minds is a project aimed at Young Aspiring Artists (YAA), giving them the opportunity to experience photography in a way that they never have before; through the use of vintage cameras. The YAA, aged between 5 and 17, were each loaned vintage box cameras which they learnt to load with film.
As the YAA completed the below briefs, they learn how to develop their own negatives, providing them with a unique experience that they will likely remember for many years to come. The awe and excitement that each of the YAA showed when they saw the images on the negatives for the first time took me back to my first experience. It was from this point that I knew that this project was important and needed to be continued.
There are many skills and lessons that are being developed in the background of the project without the YAA really seeing what they're getting out of this participatory project. Firstly, they're learning photographic skills using analogue methods. These are a good foundation as these are skills that can be adapted to digital photography should they choose that path in the future. They learn more about their subjects and become more self aware in the process. They also learn some aspects of history, literacy (visual) and chemistry and math (photographic chemicals, how they work with each other and the process required for developing their negatives and the ratios of chemicals to water).
Further to the skills already mentioned, the YAA also start to develop life skills that are important but are being lost in today's instant gratification society. Patience and resilience.
Unlike with the use of digital cameras or mobile phones, they're unable to view their images immediately. They have to be patient and wait until the full roll of film is exposed and there is time to develop them. The YAA then also have to wait while the developing process is taking place as different films require different times within the developing tank and yet have to wait further for the negatives to dry.
The images on the 75+ year old cameras may not always turn out as well as they'd hope due to the primitive technology, unintentional camera movement (slower shutter speeds) and available light/film sensitivity (ISO/ASA). Yes some of the images on each film have been less than perfect but the resilience of the YAA kicked in and they were excited to try again and improve on their next turn!
1st Brief - Free Reign
In this brief, the Young Aspiring Artists were asked to photograph whatever they wanted. This was to give them some freedom and to allow them the opportunity to tell us, or show us a story or a part of their life that they deem significant - and the didn't disappoint!
Initially, this was deemed by some of my lecturers as quite a bold and potentially dangerous move for the project as I had no control over what would come back to me, and I agreed with them. I did however think this was exciting, not knowing how this would turn out, almost like Stephen Gill's work "Outside In" when he adds debris into his camera before he take his photos, also not knowing what the images will turn out like.
The level of insight that came from this brief allowed us, the viewers, the consumers of the images, a glimpse of the world through the eyes of the Young Aspiring Artists. Please check out the gallery page for Free Reign for a selection of the images taken.
2nd Brief - See Me
In this brief, the Young Aspiring Artists (YAA) were given eight questions to answer with the eight exposures that they get on the box brownie cameras that they were using. This brief was designed to encourage the YAA to slow down, think and consider what images they wanted to take, and think about how to take the desired pictures with certain constraints, such as available light, etc.
Some of the YAA did struggle with this to start with and needed a small amount of coaching to get their creative juices flowing. Once they realised that they could be as creative or as literal as they liked, they started to enjoy this brief too. It gave the YAA the opportunity to tell us about themselves, what they like and how they feel; it was all about them and how they see themselves.
Once again, the YAA surprised me in how creative they could be and how they see themselves, or how they want to be seen. One question asked "Who/ what would you be if you could be anything/ anyone?" and one answer in particular I found to be amazing. Meg, 17, answered that question with "I wouldn't want to be anybody but me. I am happy in my own body, I am who I am." What an amazing positive image for a young lady to put out there; an inspiration to others.
List of the questions:
1. Describe yourself
2. What is your perfect day?
3. What/who would you be if you could be anything/anyone?
4. What is your favourite hobby?
5. Show me your favourite space
6. What is your favourite childhood memory?
7. Who is your hero?
8. What is the first thing that made you smile today?
3rd Brief - Remember When
This brief asks the Young Aspiring Artists to regale a memory. One that you might share with friends or family, the kind which always start with "Do you remember when...?"
Remember When is designed to open their minds and learn to tell stories using pictures., The young artists have planned and executed their sequence of images increasing their visual literacy skills and learning that imagery is in fact a universal language.
There was still a lot of creative freedom for the young artists to enjoy with this task while still instilling some of more difficult skills. For example; this could be an actual memory or story from their past or it could be an entire work of fiction.
There was eight shots available for the young artists to utilise, they could use all shots for one memory, or split them into multiple memories. Once again, the resulting work produced was of an exceptional standard with the artists ranging from 12 to 17 years of age.
This allows the young artists to start finding their own voice and think about what they want to say to the world through their image making.
The artists were then asked to write, design and arrange their own stories for their double page spread in the third zine. Click the link below to see the full range of images. Or use the form at the bottom of the page to order yourself a copy of the Zines!
Phase 2
Phase 2 of Enthusing Young Minds focuses on alternative practices that allow the Young Aspiring Artists to print their images taken during the first phase of the project with the aim of being environmentally conscious and cost effective too. This is particularly important during the cost of living crisis, and the climate emergency that are have to be at the forefront of our developing practices to ensure that we reduce our negative impact on the environment, reduce our costs, while still enjoying the arts.
After researching some alternative processes to printing, I decided upon Anthotypes. This printing process uses plant matter, paper and sunlight and can be done with very little cost. Phase 2 of the project began with my own experiments to see what materials would work best and would be cheap to source. I found paintbrushes and old frames in charity shops and sourced beetroot and spinach from local shops. I picked leaves of trees and bushes and took paprika and turmeric from the spice rack to see which plant matter would work the best. The plant matter was cut into small pieces then mashed up with Isopropyl alcohol using a pestle and mortar. Once again, thinking economically and ecologically, a pestle and mortar does not require electricity. After straining the plant juices (emulsion) through a cloth, it was painted onto watercolour paper and left to dry in a darkened room. Finally a positive image was printed onto acetate then layered onto the coated paper and clipped in a frame and left out in the sunshine.
My first couple of attempts did not work but I persevered with it to finally produce some great results using beetroot, spinach, turmeric and paprika. The paprika was the quickest to print in the sun with it taking only a few hours, whereas the beetroot and spinach took in excess of a week to print. At this stage, I also learnt that I needed to find a better way to coat/ dry the papers as can been seen the leaf imprint into beetroot coated paper, there were large splodges that dried on the paper.
Workshop 1
In the first workshop, there were three of the Young Aspiring Artist, Jack Doyle (9yrs), Megan Doyle (17yrs) and Izzy Riley (11yrs). They initially tried the paprika mixed with alcohol but soon started experimenting with plants from the garden. Meg produced a purple emulsion on her paper by mixing brambles, buddleia and isopropyl, Jack produced a vibrant green emulsion on his paper by mixing comfrey, daisy leaves and nettles with isopropyl and Izzy also created a purple emulsion by mixing holly hock, rose petals and isopropyl. These experiments were done by the Young Aspiring Artists which allowed them to become more excited by what they were trying.
The prints started working with the paprika being the quickest and the rest taking about a week to print but with some amazing results! It wasn't just the kids that were amazed by these results, the parents were to, comparing it to science and art classes from when they were at school.
Workshop 2
In the second workshop, there were three more participants, Demi Welham (16yrs), Tom Keogh (13yrs) and Cardlin Huntley (16yrs). They each picked an ingredient to try with Demi picking the red cabbage, Cardlin choosing the paprika and Tom picking the beetroot. Between the three of them, they coated enough paper to take the extra sheets home with them to clamp in a frame once their first Anthotypes were completed. Each of the Young Aspiring Artists have expressed how much fun this process is and how they would like to continue to use the method going forward.
Meg even went as far as to recreate the workshop, putting her own spin on it for other children who are currently not participants within my project. The learner became the teacher.
Read more about anthotypes and other alternative processes HERE
Read an interview about Enthusing Young Minds by AlternativePhotography.com HERE
Phase 3
Phase 3 of Enthusing Young Minds introduces the Young Aspiring Artists (YAA) to research. The brief was developed to encourage the YAA look at photographers, artists or events that interest them. Based on their research, they were asked to write a brief for me, Chris G Smith to fulfil.
With the realisation that I, the project director, was becoming the student and they were becoming the teachers, sparked their interest, They were suddenly faced with a position of responsibility in this context, quite possibly for the first time ever.
Their research could be about anything they liked the first brief being delivered to me by Jack Doyle (aged 9). He'd done research on Hull Fair which was in town at the time. He surprised me with some of the facts that I previously did not know and in doing that Jack had immediately succeeded in this phase. Jack had asked me to photograph my favourite ride, thing (attraction) or memory of the fair.
Other briefs soon followed; some were loose which allowed me to interpret how I liked while others were more rigid and requesting specific styles. The production of images specific to each YAA was exhilarating. Although they weren't producing images themselves at this point, it gave a view into how they think and what interests them. This kind of information would be particularly useful to parents who struggle to connect with their kids as they progress into adolescence or school teachers who wish to engage with the youngsters by using subjects of interest to start a conversation.
Conversation; the next step in phase 3. Once the YAA were provided with the images that fulfilled their briefs, they were invited to respond to the images with images of their own. The majority chose this option and responded to me which began to form The Photographic Conversation.
This Phase caught the attention of the Head of Art at a local secondary school who was very keen to have her Year 11 GCSE class take part. But there was a catch; with 24 pupils in the class and only a week to complete all the briefs they'd sent, I was in dire need of some help. The oldest of the YAA I'd been working with up to this point was Megan who is also studying photography for her A-Levels. I offered her the opportunity to assist with this task which would provide her with a valuable experience and transferable skills.
Between the pair of us, we completed the briefs, ensuring each pupil received an image from us. They were then provided with disposable film cameras from the school to use during their half term break to respond to the images that we'd created for them.
We finally got to meet the class to discuss their images during the final day of the Enthusing Young Minds Exhibition in Hull City Centre. The pupils had responded well to the task and it was a real pleasure to see the engagement. For many of them, it was their first time using an analogue camera with the concept of not being able to immediately, see their images being completely alien to them. The comments made by many of them was that they were excited to see the images they'd taken while they waited for their images to be developed. One of the many life skills that this project aims to instil into our next generation of potential photographers.
The work produced was now needed to be displayed in a way that would do it justice. Because we already had three zines, we felt it would be repetitive to do this again. After a conversation with the participants, we decided to produce a newspaper. We looked through our local newspapers for inspiration on layouts, titles and how images and text can compliment each other...or indeed how the text can change the meaning of an image.
But why a newspaper? Newspapers were the first mass publication to use photography to illustrate their stories from c1890 initiating conversations. Although during this latest phase, we deviated from just using analogue techniques (due to time constraints) we decided that this kept with the feel of Enthusing Young Minds, with a tribute to the early days of photography while still producing a printed body of work that the YAA could keep and add to their own portfolios.
SEE CONVERSING THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY
Let’s Collaborate...
If you have any ideas about a collaboration, please do send me a message.
Do you have an exhibition space? Would you like to exhibit this work?
I am also looking for funding in order to keep this project running for as long as possible; donations of funds, equipment, film, paper or chemistry would be highly appreciated.
E-Mail: csuk2290@googlemail.com
