Introduction
A project with Primary School Children over a period of two weeks. The project set out to explore the values of each individual child through sketchbook drawings and photography using the playground as the source of investigation.
Each child was asked to use a sketchbook to record ideas about what they found interesting about the space of the playground and their time in it. Children were asked to think about composition and editing a picture using framing techniques. Each child was also asked to use one word to describe their area of interest. These words were drawn onto card and laminated. They were also asked to think about brining in 'props' for the photograph, objects or things that were important to them.
Each child was then helped to identify the area in the playground they wanted to photograph (they were only allowed to take one photograph). They were given a chair to sit in to take the photograph as this helped them to focus their attention and to think carefully about distance. They were asked to consider if they wished to use their word in the photograph or not. Once the child had taken the photograph, a photograph was made of the chair with the camera always facing north and at a 1m distance away. The children had been learning about sunlight, shadows and measuring and this was to re-inforce learning about measurement and orientation.
The final exhibition was set up to juxtapose the childrens photograph with the photograph of the chair. It was set up according to points of the compass to recreate a sense of the playground in three dimensional space.
