Huntington Photography Students Explore Manhattan
April 3, 2024
Huntington High School photography students recently traveled into Manhattan for a tour of Bruce Silverstein Gallery along with stops at several other well-regarded galleries and an opportunity to practice street photography in the Big Apple.
Dozens of students enrolled in Advanced Placement Studio Art: 2D Design and Advanced Photography participated in the field trip, which was coordinated by art teacher Pamela Piffard, who heads Huntington High School’s photography program.
In the lead-up to the trip, students learned about street photography and what it takes to capture such images. “Street photography is a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other settings,” Ms. Piffard said. “Street photography uses the techniques of straight photography in that it shows a pure vision of something, like holding up a mirror to society. Street photography tends to be ironic and can be distanced from its subject matter and often concentrates on a single human moment, caught at a decisive or poignant moment.”
Besides the Bruce Silverstein Gallery, the Huntington group visited the Gagosian, Gagosian West, Hauser & Wirth, Paul Cooper and the Yancey Richardson galleries. The teenagers quickly embraced to their surroundings as they went about their artistic work.
Manhattan is one of the world’s leading photographic centers and the city’s always vibrant life gave students limitless choices as they went about completing their class assignment.
The trip both educated and inspired the teenagers, who returned to Huntington with plenty of new ideas and an eagerness to try them out.
“The best thing about street photography is that it is possible for the final viewer of a print to see more than the original photographer,” Ms. Piffard said. “One of the great things about a city is that more things are happening, even within a small neighborhood, at any moment than any human can comprehend. Photography allows us to freeze one of those moments and study all of the small dramas that were taking place.”
Ms. Piffard has been bringing her students to Manhattan and other field locations for many years. Huntington has a thriving photography program and its participants routinely win awards for their work.
Participants completed a gallery packet and shooting assignment on location during the trip.
It’s been 26 years since Ms. Piffard arrived at Huntington High School in September 1998 to begin her teaching career. She studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology, earning an associate’s degree in photography in 1996 and then obtained a B.A. in photography and a state teaching certificate at Parsons School of Design/New School University in 1998. She received a master’s in graphic design at Long Island University–C.W. Post College in 2003.
The faculty member’s love affair with photography started early in life. “I first took a class in middle school,” she said. “I wanted to do it because my sister had liked it. Immediately I knew it was a passion. By the time I was 14, I had my own darkroom and I spent every spare moment printing.”
By the time she was 15, Ms. Piffard was already shooting local bands and the following year as a 16-year old she was working for “Under the Volcano” fanzine (a magazine for fans that’s typically produced by amateurs) and had done three albums.
What’s her advice to aspiring photographers? “To get started, just shoot a lot and keep doing it,” Ms. Piffard said. “Network as much as you can and show your work to anyone who will look at it.”
