When we came across an article
about renowned photographer Cindy Sherman in a recent edition of The Times, it
sparked a lot of conversation in the Jigsaw office. Sherman puts herself in front of the camera
and portrays a vast array of characters, after delving into her trusty prop box
and makeup bag. Her photos are full of mystery, because she never gives the
viewer any detail as to the character she’s depicting, so we end up making our
own assumptions.
This week, we’ve had a 14
year old student, Bryn, on work experience with us. He thought it sounded like
great fun and spent a few minutes looking at Sherman’s pictures on the Internet. Seeing
how interested he was got us thinking – this would be a fantastic activity for
English students. Classes learning about ‘Lord of the Flies’ or ‘An Inspector
Calls’ could bring the characters to life and think of different ways to
explain who they are, using the image alone. As Bryn was so keen on the idea,
we decided to use him as our guinea-pig and find out if this idea would really
work.
We equipped Bryn with a Canon
200D camera, some extra lighting and various bits and bobs that were to hand,
and set him a challenge: to pick a character from Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ and
bring it to life in a series of original self-portraits. Bryn had little
photographic experience, so we helped him come up with a plan of attack. The
first thing he needed to do was pick a character and analyse them – your
students can do this in small groups or pairs. Ask them to come up with a list
of character traits, which they can support with key quotes from the text. Once
they’ve compiled their character analysis, you can open it up as a class
discussion. It should lead to a great debate, because characters can always be
interpreted in different ways:
Othello – Eloquent, powerful,
trusting, insecure, alienated, gullible
Desdemona – Submissive,
loyal, forgiving, weak, independent
Bryn chose Iago (everyone
loves a good villain, after all). This character’s cunning, two-faced,
manipulative, humorous, deceptive, violent and ruthless – all without feeling
any remorse. These kinds of qualities can really get the imagination going when
you’re planning pictures, so we thought it was a clever choice!
Next was the planning stage,
where Bryn had to come up with some ideas for his photo shoot. He had lots of
ideas about lighting, facial expressions and body positions he could try, but
we realised that we didn’t have much Shakespearean garb lying around the
building. This was the only snag in our plan: it’s all very well suggesting
props and makeup but, unless you’ve got an endless assortment of costumes and a
member of staff who happens to be a dab hand at face painting, it’s a bit
ambitious. Sherman’s
pictures are different to this project; she creates enigmatic characters whilst
Bryn was trying to convey very specific characteristics.
After a good half hour
of attempting to disguise our scanners and cables as stylish hats, it was
agreed that Bryn was better off focusing on Iago’s personality, rather than his
superficial appearance. As it turned out, diverging slightly from Cindy
Sherman’s style worked really well, especially when we showed Bryn what he
could do with the lighting kit. He was really inventive and kept us on our toes
by asking if things were possible! It’s always useful to have a list of ideas
to hand just to get your students started, but if they’re anything like Bryn
they’ll soon be coming up with their own experimental ideas.
Before we started shooting, Bryn drew out some of his
ideas on paper so that he had a clear idea of what he wanted to achieve in each
picture. He annotated them to point out lights, body positions and specific
expressions he wanted to try. Having these plans also meant that one of our
in-house photography experts, who had volunteered to lend a helping hand, knew
exactly what Bryn wanted and could offer suggestions. When everything was ready
and Bryn had taken a few minutes to practise his Iago expressions in the
mirror, we started his shoot!
When we set him this task, we
did wonder if Bryn would feel a little overwhelmed with running his own shoot,
but he was ordering us around in no time! As you can see from the picture below, the
results were fantastic. Bryn’s Iago comes across as wickedly sneaky, looking
particularly evil in his close up eye-focused shot.
The most important thing in
Bryn’s shoot was that he tried every idea and if it didn’t work he simply moved
on to the next. Most students are going to be quite new to this kind of photography,
but they shouldn’t think of it as a complicated and scary thing. That’s the
great thing about working digitally: you can snap and snap, trying every idea
they’ve thought up, without worrying about wasting film! Try weird angles,
holding pieces of sheer material between the subject and the lens – even moving
the camera around whilst shooting can give an interesting effect with very
little effort. Who needs props and makeup when you’ve got editing software?
Photoshop is a great way to add excitement and context to photos, from manipulation
and airbrushing to adding in new backgrounds and experimenting with colour
(great for showing insanity).
In the classroom, students
can compare their results and discuss what each photo represents (we had
biscuits when we did this with Bryn, but that’s entirely optional). It can even
be turned into a quiz; show your students a picture and ask them to name the
character, giving a quote from the text to back up their choice. It’s a
fantastic way to remember characters from every genre. As long they’ve got lots
of imagination and a good knowledge of the part their character plays in the
book or play, your students can come up with an infinite number of photographs.
Using photography in the
classroom doesn’t have to be expensive; all you really need is an SLR camera, a
couple of lights and some editing software. It can give your students a real
depth of understanding and encourages them to think creatively as they learn.
Of course, it’s all very well for us to say how good it is, but what did Bryn
think?
Bryn’s Verdict (He really did write this!)
“I really enjoyed it –
Shakespeare is finally fun! At first it was difficult to come up with ideas,
but once you squeeze a few out they start to flow and once you get started it’s
hard to stop again!
Before today, I could twiddle
a camera lens, click the buttons and take good photos, but nothing close to the
level we used today. The equipment was really impressive: there were linked
flashes, professional-looking directional lights and Velcro light-blockers (to
focus the flash). It was a bit like having a school photo taken, but not as
scary.
I’ve never learned about
Othello before, but after reading about Iago and doing this activity, I feel
like I’ve always known his characteristics. I reckon I could write an essay
about Iago (but don’t hold me to it!)
I think my classmates would
love doing this. Shakespeare is all about creativity, exploring characters and
creating your own image in your head. With this activity, you can build your
perfect picture of any character.
I’d just like to say to any
teachers out there, do this with your students! It’s a sure-fire way to bring
Shakespeare out of the hum-drum and back into what it was always meant to be:
visual entertainment.”
If you want to step out of the “hum-drum”, call our education experts on 03332 409 333 and find out more about
getting photography into your lessons. You can also email us at learning@jigsaw24.com.
Our
Top Lighting Tips:
1.
Make your own lightbox – Cover a cardboard box with tin foil, add a flash and
you’ve got a cheap addition to your lighting kit! Lightboxes emphasise the
flash by reflection, flooding your picture with light. Use it to show a
character’s vulnerability.
2.
Try backlighting – You can give your subject an ethereal glow simply by placing
a lamp behind them. Saintly characters are the perfect basis for backlighting,
as are weaklings and even ghosts!
3.
Focus the flash – Just like Bryn, you can emphasise facial features by focusing
your flash with light-blockers. We created a letterbox effect on Bryn’s eyes
for that dark, evil look.
Bryn Used:
James' Nikon
D300
Adobe
Photoshop CS4
13"
MacBook White