'The Elementz of Art in Photography: Tween Style!

                                          

On Friday, February 8th, Karen Marie Jenkins formerly known as Our Spirit and Soul, hosted The Elementz of Art in Photography: Tween Style at the School of Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati. The exhibit showcased the photography of my after school photography students. The students ranged from 5th to 8th grade but their work and keen eye revealed work well beyond their chronological years! The focus of this exhibit was the same as our 8 week class and that was to capture the elements of art in photography: to shoot like an artist vs as a traditional photographer. And as such the students learned about vibrant color, lines, shapes, patterns, varying perspectives,  composition and post photo editing. They did a wonderful job!

The above poster was created by my college intern friend, Faith, who created it from picture below. Faith layered the picture with additional colors and bubbles making it very representative of Tween passion. The original photographic (below) taken by Stephanie absolutely captures the essence of Tween style playing with their phone.

 Stephanie has a keen and stylish eye for contemporary digital photography. Her perspective for catching her subject from a side view reveals a lovely composition of flowing hair, the subject's brilliant red sweater, with a vibrant green blurred background. As part of the eight week class, we used photo shop and other basic photo editing tools. Stephanie utilized her post photo processing in a very stylish way to bring out the colors of this beautiful photograph.

Way to go, Stephanie!

                                                                    

Annabella and her family in attendance at the Tween exhibit standing in front of her picture..

One of the elements we discussed in class was capturing shots of your subject from a different perspective or angle. I wanted the students to look for different angle; to view things differently: to bend down, look around corners to find interesting ways to capture their image. Annabella was really good at capturing this concept in her picture above. Also, by focusing on the leaf in the forefront it blurred out the background (shallow depth of field) making for a beautiful shot. The composition she created forces the viewer to see just what Annabella wants you to see: beauty!

 The kids had a great time coming up with titles for their pictures.."Pictures speak louder than words;" Annabella called this one. And she is right...each student had their own way of posing. This pictures definitely tells an interesting story against the beautiful wood doors as her backdrop. And a nice composition.

Everyone had a great time and were really surprised at the level of professionalism, technique and artistry from the students. Lots of talking...

Celeste photograph below is a feast of color, angles, shapes, lines and varied yet pulled together subjects. Usually photographers are told to focus on one subject, but Celeste is anything but typical and that works well. In this photo she has captured so many elements of art and design that we studied. The most obvious is the brilliant and varied colors that spring from her photo; the shapes of the building also shine in color from editing and from the sun hitting the buildings in a natural way. The focus of this photo is your choice as Celeste leaves it open for your perspective! 
Celeste did an awesome job on this photo!

                                                        A happy customer of Celeste!

Saige and his lovely mother were very excited about attending the event! Saige just like his name is a very artistic student with a good eye for photography. He will tell you so himself...:) Below are a couple of his shots.

Saige calls this lines and flowers! Saige is really good at capturing the elements we studied! Can you see the layers of horizontal and vertical lines and patterns? The composition of this picture is very well done: everything that is included in this picture seems to belong...nothing is out of place. 

"Walking to the Boom!" This picture is almost perfectly divided into great lines! The three ladies walking in unison from the long pathway behind them to the linear pathway in front of them intersected by the crosswalk and the canon. Then the outskirts of the picture are framed by the height of the trees. Great eye, Saige!

Max, his parents and sister enjoyed themselves. Max has a very interesting way of viewing and seeing the world around him. His work is beautiful and very artistic. In the picture below he demonstrates his artistic perspective of capturing a small tip of a building roof and a geometric slice of Music Hall in a way that the average person would never see. Heck...I didn't see this shot! It is photography, and it amazingly abstract! He nails the shot by layering it with a filter...making it very geometric and futuristic looking!

Max frames this composition with trees and golden yellow, orange and green leaves nestling against the white building and the cloudy and blue backdrop of the sky. Nice composition. 
Everything is well captured! 

My student Aaron and his mentor attended the exhibit and both were impressed with the young people's work. Aaron's picture above called 1 + 1 leaf is a simple, yet fresh view and play with color from the leaves and the cement blue background.

This is Grace! Grace is so young, but an amazing artist! You will not believe the level of her work! Just look below.

First of all the angle of this shot is crisp and clear! Grace's focus on straight lines leading your eyes just where she wants you to go! The walkway...the collective line from the bannister on each side. The black bannisters make for great contrast in this picture along with blurred green background and city street.  The composition on this shot is also very tight! We see just what Grace wants us to see!

Again Grace is far beyond her very young years! This a  beautiful shot of one of her classmates. Look at the colors she captures. The background of faded blue and pastel yellow and green nature on the right side make for a soft shot against the softness of the subject's face. Grace didn't need to capture the subject's whole body instead she wants you to focus on the sheer beauty of pink, her cream colored skin and golden locks against the blurred background. 
Grace's composition leads your eyes to where she wants you to see!

My friend attending the event and a happy customer too!

My long time friend and I posing for a picture together and Kirah, my photography student who decides to pose in the picture too. but isn't that what young tweens do :)! Her photo below represents pockets of color, light, and shadows arrayed in various parts of the image. Kirah  also captures directional lines and patterns of the curved walk-way and the patterns of the bench. I love how Kirah positioned herself to take this shot! Very nice angle and shot!

Zoe and her mother. This young lady has some very interesting shots, great composition and angular views. Below is her shot of Music Hall in Cincinnati from a side view. She captures a triangular view if you look closely on grassy area you can see it.  she also captured the line of the shrubbery which leading to the tree as part of her composition. 
The overall coloring of the photograph was nicely edited.

Crystal and her son Aaron. Aaron has a growing passion for photography with an special interest in landscape. I hope to work with him some day soon! Thanks for coming out, Aaron and Crystal!

Isabelle talking to Crystal about her work. I love how Isabelle edited her photography in black and white to reveal the simple beauty and charm of Music Hall's wood doors. The white and black touch encourages the viewer to see the actual beauty found in the patterned doors, linear shapes and patterned brick. Crystal also saw the beauty and purchased it!

Shaking hands on their business transaction. This was a great opportunity for the kids to learn entrepreneurship and the value of their work

Kilanee, my photography student and mentee with her mom and teacher. You may recognize her from other blog posts. Kilanee has an eye for stylish beauty. In the picture below called "Secrets", she captured our assignment with the almost neutral-like bold colors and our theme of girlfriends telling each other secrets. The angle and tightly framed manner in which she took this shot makes this shot look like a commercial ad for young ladies. It is a beautiful image! 

 

You got it...another purchase transaction!

My friend Karen stopping by the event and gracing it with her pretty smile!

Local artist-painter, Cedric, Karen and on the right, Melanie, the art teacher from the School of 

Local artist-painter, Cedric, Karen and on the right, Melanie. Melanie is an art teacher at SCPA and was awesome help and support to me. I could not have accomplished the success of this without her,  Steve Finn, art director of the Aronoff Art Center and the School of Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati for lending us the space. The Elementz of Art in Photography: Tween Style will be on display until Friday, Feb 22nd.  Stay tuned for more exhibits from young people in Cincinnati!
For more pics and information, click here.