Friday, December 4, 2009

Jessica, 8th Grade, RYSS


I took a picture of the sky because it looked bright and pretty. When I was taking the picture, I accidentally put my finger over the lens, and it came out in the picture. I was going to delete the picture because of the finger, but I liked it so I kept it. The sky is light blue with some white fluffy clouds, and in the left top corner, you can see my finger. It looks interesting because it looks like a shadow. This picture makes me feel happy and creative.

Jessica, 8th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Areli, 6th Grade, RYSS


This picture is really interesting. The grass is long, and it is really green. There are also five mushrooms that are white. Some of them have circles and dots that are light brown. The one in the middle is the biggest. And the two in front of it are small. In the back, there is a black line. I think this is a really weird and one of the best pictures I have taken.

Areli, 6th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Jackie, 7th Grade, RYSS


I like this picture because you can see as the sun sets, the small building's shadow makes an angle. If you look on the left side, you can see our teacher, Mr.Chambers. It looks like he is pointing at the shadow, and also see how one building's shadow is on the side of the other building. If you look at the top of the second building, you can see some plants sticking out. Look on both sides and you can see what is on either side of the building. You can see the clear glass on the right and cars on the left. The picture seems to look side ways, but that is the shadow and how the sun is facing the clear building. It makes me feel like Mr. Chambers is part of this shadow. I picked this picture because its not just a building, it's a building, shadow, and Mr. Chambers.

Jackie, 7th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Ana, 6th Grade, RYSS


I think this picture is interesting because the cone in front looks bigger than the others, and the lines that are yellow look bigger too. The sky has a lot of shapes because of the clouds.

Ana, 6th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Maritza, 8th Grade, RYSS


When I look at this picture, I feel like everything is dead. We don't have a good life, and Earth does not have color ... only black and white. I think, ''What would it be like if our planet was just black and white? People would not have a better life. They would be sad and angry with each other." In real life, there is color. That's why God brings us all the beautiful flowers we see. We love Earth and we will until God gets tired of us.

Maritza, 8th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Maria, 7th Grade, RYSS


The reason I like this picture is because you can actually see our 7th and 8th grade girls playing volleyball. You can see how they are concentrating on the game. I guess the volleyball is up in the air because you can't see it in the picture. Everyone is looking at the ball except for Rosario who's biting her nails. So, it's a cool picture and at the same time, I think it's funny because some girls' positions are different. And you can actually see their faces.

Maria, 7th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Cynthia, 8th Grade, RYSS


I like this picture because, I love nature, and the way this picture was taken makes it look very cool. I think this picture shows Mother Nature and what it can express. I also like the colors, and the angle it was taken. I like how the trees look tilted with the broken pieces of wood. it looks so realistic.

Cynthia, 8th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Aide, 6th Grade, RYSS


I like this picture because of all the texture it has, the clouds, the person running, the cones, all the cars, the big arrows, the sun that's not shown there, but makes the clouds so bright. I also love this picture because the person running looks like if he's floating, which makes the picture really funny. When I see this picture, it makes me feel happy and bright because of all the light there is and the color like the yellow stripes on the ground. And the trees don't look green, they look black or dark green. You'll notice someone by a white car is opening the car door, which shows movement.

Aide, 6th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Instructors and LTP

Instructors:

Harold Olejarz is Art and Technology teacher at Eisenhower Middle School, Wyckoff, New Jersey, U.S.A. He began his career as a sculptor and exhibited in Soho, NYC, in the early 1980s. His work evolved into Performance Art and his living sculptures installed themselves in museums and public spaces in the US and Europe from 1985 to the early 1990s. He has been exploring digital media as both an artist and an educator since 1997. “Capturing the Moving Present,” an essay by Harold Olejarz, is included in Video Art for the Classroom, a National Art Education Association publication. Olejarz has made presentations on the use of digital media at state and national educational conferences.

Tom Chambers is Technology Applications teacher at Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [Junior Academy], Houston, Texas, U.S.A. He was Visiting Lecturer in Digital/New Media Art for the Fine Arts Department at Zhaoqing University, Zhaoqing, China, 2005-2007. He was Executive Committee Member and Juror (2003 - 2005) for the International Digital Art Awards (IDAA), and was instrumental in expanding the content of the IDAA to include New Media Art, and served as on-line New Media Director (2004 - 2005). Chambers has been a documentary photographer and visual artist for over thirty years, and he is currently working with the pixel as Minimal Art (Pixelscapes) which begins to approach a true, abstract, visual language in Digital Art.

Tanya Heard is Art/Photo teacher at T. H. Rogers School, Houston, Texas.

2007 - 2008 school year participant:

Dorian Gillespie is Art teacher at Southmore Intermediate School in Pasadena Texas. Prior to coming to Southmore, he taught at Bailey Elementary. He decided to teach and mentor students in the arts in order to give them an opportunity to learn and advise them of the many career choices an artist has. Although he did not teach art at Bailey, he was able to incorporate many art lessons into the curriculum. He has taught after school art classes for the University of Houston Clear Lake as well. Rather than become a professional artist, he decided to mentor as a teacher.

This blog was a part of the FotoFest LTP process:

2007 - 2008
2008 - 2009
2009 - 2010

Literacy Through Photography (LTP), the educational component of FotoFest International (Houston, Texas), is a writing program designed to help classroom students achieve better communication skills through the use of digital or film-based photography.

FotoFest has combined with the instructors and schools to pursue a pilot program ... blog approach ... for LTP.

Students increase visual and verbal literacy while building cognitive thinking skills, self-esteem, and awareness of each other. The LTP curriculum provides students with meaningful subject matter to help them write about their own photographs, their own lives, with confidence.

This blog, founded by Harold Olejarz and Tom R. Chambers continues to be a significant tool to help students with their written expression.