Themes: Things We Fear

We all are afraid of something. That's why "Things We Fear", the theme I introduced to my  high school classes this week is so good for beginning work with themes - it's immediately relatable. I introduced the concept by showing the work of a few artists, including horror Joshua Hoffine (pictured right). 
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​His work, and the theme, were perfect for student's mindset during the week of Halloween, but it also worked well in addressing the concept of creating visual mood. In fact, I liked the mini project I taught based on his work so well that next year it will be the main event. 

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​Students spent part of one class investigating how to create photos inspired by the theme of "Things We Fear". This exercise was a short, group project intended to serve as a inspiration/ development stage activity to help students work through ideas for self-directed work with the theme. 

We started this mini lesson by looking at Hoffine's work to identify important element of images that include an element of fear: the unknown, dramatic angles and heightened contrast were all on our list. I asked groups to create an image to share in 30 minutes, and required that they used a prop and edited the images. 

Some groups easily created effective images with no help from me. Other groups needed more support. The most effective part of this experience for students came when I conferenced with groups that had images that needed editing. I was able to ask them questions that helped guide them to better communicating the theme. 

"Do you need so much of the wall above the figure?" 
"I notice you're smiling in the image - does that communicate what you'd like it to?"
​ "I wonder how adding more contrast would impact the mood?"

I loved how students were easily able to edit photos and see how much these changes impacted the image. Composition is something that students often struggle with and this activity made the impact of compositional changes very tangible in a way that sketching ideas for a drawing or painting can't. Next year, instead of a mini lesson, this will be a multi day experience, with groups having a few days to create props and stage scenes to create a series of images that tell a story. I think it will be a perfect bridge between learning about media and processed in Explorations and the more open ended, self- directed work I'm asking for in addressing themes.