Once in front of the lens students were encouraged to let go of their self-consciousness and model expressions and gestures that communicate the essence of middle school life. We discussed the work of the street artist JR and the idea of art changing the world. Could we challenge stereotypes of middle school aged people with our photographic portraits and change viewpoints?
Last, the students cropped and toned their images using an app called Snapseed in preparation for the next step in the unit which is using the photograph as a reference image for a large scale charcoal drawing.