Wadi Hanifa-A Constructed reality
I was looking at a CBC Photo gallery concerning a Toronto architectural firm’s role in rehabilitating what was once a toxic landfill in the middle of a Saudi Arabian oasis. Wadi Hanifa (or Hanifa Valley) is the longest valley near the capital of Riyadh and part of a natural water drainage area for a region of more than 4,000 square kilometres. Moriyama & Teshima Planners’ work on rehabilitating the water in the Valley received an award. Some of the images in the CBC news gallery are quite striking, but as I viewed them the media teacher light started flashing. I started to think about some of the basic media principles and the critical thinking skills I try to instill in my students. How constructed were these photographs ? What values and beliefs were these images promoting ? Was there a business interest to consider ? Were these images modified ? Were they selling a product, service, or idea ?
What I noticed was the following things. No specific photographer or studio was identified as taking the photographs. Some of the photographs seemed to be done in a more hyper-realistic/artistic style. while others had a more natural lighting and colour. In some of the images there were elements that appeared to be placed into the composition. Were some of these images re-touched or modified to create a more dramatic tone and emphasize the return of nature and the natural world ? Look at the examples below and then use the link at the start of this post to see the whole gallery. What is your impression ?
Project Complete, ……….. Mostly Complete
Hopefully, my wife and I can finally relax when we think about the school calendar project. We’ve finished our portion of the job and can take the mock-up in on Monday to go over it with the Principal. It will then go to the printer. In previous years Elliot Lake Secondary School would do a black and white calendar. Sometimes the calendar was done in-house, other times it would be done by a local printer. Costs were partially covered by the local Ford dealership and the calendar would include their advertising. My wife, who is the art teacher, would select pen and ink drawings from her students to be included as part of the calendar.
This year the Vice Principal and the Literacy-Success Instructor were able to get funding to do a glossy calendar. The pictures for each month were to represent character education goals. Initially the plan was to have a group of senior art students photograph tableaux and art installations. This idea mutated into including more photography of school events that would represent the various goals – monthly motivational posters. This then created new issues. The students didn’t have enough time to do all the months. The wide selection of photographs were intentionally taken for a specific purpose and target audience - basic media principles. Instead of being used to decorate the school / be used in the yearbook, the message and medium was being altered. That meant a new media reality was being constructed. These were not just dramatic or amusing photographs to document school events and high-light student activity and accomplishments. The photographs had to convey the specific character traits.
Instead of my wife organizing and mentoring students, she ended up reviewing and selecting content. I ended up with a more hands-on role in designing the overall character trait images for each month. Our home computers were getting older and they did not appreciate the large graphic files we were working with. They chose to , um… retire. It has been an interesting summer.
We needed a photograph or image of the school for the cover of the calendar. I played with one of my shots of the school.
In the end we chose to use a water-colour painting that my wife had done. It was used on the cover in conjunction with other images of school activities.
As you may have noticed in the above images, our school has a wind turbine. At the time of the turbine’s installation, E.L.S.S. was the first and only secondary school in North America to have a wind turbine. It was part of the school initiative to develop environmental awareness in the school and local community.
The above photograph was not used in the calendar. The next three photographs were used as components of various graphic designs.
Above is a shot our school courtyard and garden. The garden is managed by community volunteers and students.
Our school band has been very successful in competition.
The next image is a modification of a photograph I had taken of one of our students. It was part of a school campaign to promote an E.L.S.S. Reads Program. The goal was to get as many students and school staff to read The Hunger Games.
The photograph was modified using a Redfield plugin, Virtual Photographer, and PaintShop Pro. By the way, yes the young lady can really play the violin, a number of other instruments, plus sing and act. She is also a Ontario Scholar. We may live in a small Northern Ontario community, but our students and our schools are active and successful !
The final photograph was taken by a senior Art student. It was one of the student photographs that didn’t get included in the calendar and I wanted to make sure people still got to see it.
Enjoy!
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