Creativity abounds in Huntington High School’s photography classroom. Veteran teacher Pamela Piffard-Williams presides, providing lessons in techniques and skills and lots of encouragement. A recent project required students to be at their creative best.
The Huntington artists are quite familiar with legendary photographers and their specific type of art. The teenagers study these individuals and learn about the techniques they employ[ed].
Gabby Trimboli's photography is magnificent.
In the early 1980’s, English painter David Hockney began creating intricate photo collages that he called “joiners,” His earlier collages consisted of grid-like compositions made up of Polaroid photographs.
Mr. Hockney then switched to photo lab processed 35mm photographs and created collages that took on a shape of their own, creating abstract representations of the scenes he had photographed. The varied exposures of the individual photographs that make up each collage give each work a fluidity and movement that otherwise might not be found.
The Huntington student-photographers created collage images influenced by Mr. Hockney,’s work. “Students took multiple photos of one location or subject and then pieced the images together,” Mrs. Piffard-Williams said. “They did not necessarily have to line up and often created an abstract result.”
The teenagers found the project to be exceedingly worthwhile. They all worked hard to master the techniques and capture and display images that are visually pleasing and thought-provoking, if not downright inspirational.
“The David Hockney inspired images gave me the opportunity to focus on my subject and be more mindful of what I was photographing,” junior Ava Brosnan said. “I also loved the unexpected results we got. The outcome was definitely unique and everyone got such different results.”
