End of First Quarter

Lots of great work being made in the photo classes.  In Photo 5-6 students are working on self portraits.  They just got done constructing star books for this project and a few students have started printing out other images of themselves.  After Thanksgiving, we will be starting the jazz unit-working with Mr. Schmidt's graphic arts classes and the Portland Jazz Festival-creating imagery tied to music.  The Photo 3-4 classes are just finishing up their first film assignment.  They are going to start delving into the creative controls.  I am looking forward to what they do.  Here are the latest winning photographs from our Photo of the Week competition in the 3-4 classes.

7th Period Theme-Halloween 
Day of the Dead by Johnny Staver

8th Period Theme-Weird Frame
Window to Another World by Christina Valeur

First Weeks

We are off and running in the photo classes.  In Photo 5-6 students just got done with a creative exercise using film from students who left their old negatives.  While it makes me sad that some students don't understand they are leaving pieces of history, I do really like that current students get to experiment to their hearts content with this "found film".  Here are a couple pieces from that exercise.

Annie Devoe

Ruby McShane

In the Photo 3-4 classes, students have learned to make prints in the darkroom through the photogram process and have been shooting with pinhole cameras.  They have all set up blogs and have done some research into early processes and early photographers.  We have also begun our Photo of the Week competitions.  The themes were "Seeing Red" for the 7th period class and "Seeing Blue" for 8th period.  The winners from this week are Alex Vinton and Indigo Allred.  Congratulations!

Flower Tub by Alex Vinton

Alien Warp Drive by Indigo Allred

A New and Exciting School Year

Welcome back to a new school year!  I am very excited about this year.  For personal reasons, I will be working only part-time this year and will only have my 3-4 and 5-6 classes.  The Photo 1-2 Digital classes will be taught by Mr. Schmidt.   I am really looking forward to getting to know the upperclassmen taking these classes.
I hope all of you have had just as fantastic a summer as I had.  Mine was filled with artmaking.  I painted, printed, made lots of photo transfers, and drew.  It was so much fun.  I have been invited to show in the "Little Things" show at Guardino Gallery in late November and December.  Getting ready for a show is time consuming and exciting.
I can't wait to hear about everyone's eclipse stories and hear about other summer adventures.   The eclipse was such an AMAZING experience!  We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place and had the opportunity to witness totality.
Below is a photograph of what I experienced.  In many ways, I wish I hadn't been taking photographs and would have just "been there".  Alas, I couldn't resist the amazing and weird light!  I was at the coast on a very open high field, above the beach fog.  So incredible!  I did, however, forget to bring my good camera and so just had my Iphone 5S for photos.  As all know who took photos of totality with their phones, the moon was just a teeny tiny dot on the sun-not at all what I saw.  So, I used a little Photoshop to make my photograph of totality be more of what I really experienced.

The End

Another year is coming to an end.  It is always so busy at this time.  The senior show is up right now in the main hallway.  As usual, there is fabulous work by our seniors in advanced arts classes.  If you haven't seen it, stop by and take it in.  The show comes down on June 1.  We awarded the arts awards at the opening of the show.  John Langford is the recipient this year for the Photography award.
I have been so lucky to have a fantastic student teacher this year, Lindsey Johanasen.  She has been doing a really great project with the Photo 3-4 kids.  We will all miss her and wish her the best of luck landing a teaching position.  She would be a true asset to any art program.
I have started an Instagram account for showing the work and happenings of the photo classes.  If you would like to follow it, search for lhsphotoworks or my personal instagram, nancyabens and you should be able to find it.
Here are some photos from the senior show and Lindsey's project.

John Langford, Photo Department Award recipient

Senior show scenes

Works by the Converse team 

Works by the Gatorade team

Works by the Nike, Levi's, and Baseball teams

Works by the Whole Foods and Blue Apron teams

Spring and 2nd Semester

I love 2nd semester in photography.  There is such a good feeling these days in all my classes.  The sun is finally showing up a little more so students can be shooting outside more, making cyanotypes and getting inspired by all the beauty of the natural world coming back to life!
The photo essays being made in the 3-4 classes are FANTASTIC!! So many good ideas being explored and so many different processes and formats being experimented with.  The 2nd semester visual studies class seems also to be just more in to deeper explorations and experimentations in digital photography.  The Photo 5-6 class is working on Photo Intaglios and Photo Lithographs-both such cool processes.  They also just finished the cookbook.

This is a TERRIFIC DESSERT COOKBOOK with all photographs and recipes made by the students in the Photography 5-6 class.  We will be selling this for $20.00 and using the money  for a new printing press.  

If you would like one of these really great books and want to support the photography classes, USE THIS LINK TO ORDER AND PAY FOR YOURS

1st Semester DONE

Wow, what a busy and crazy end of first semester!  Between really tight deadlines for Scholastic Art and Writing, the PDX Jazz Festival Posters, and the Visual Studies classes being totally finished with the class, and then adding that wild weather in, it has been a whirlwind of activity.

First off, Congratulations to all of the Scholastic Art Award winners from the Photography classes:
Abby Carton, Annie Devoe, Chelsea Goldsmith, Bella Johnson, Libby Lazzara, Maya Lomanto, Alexandra Melville, Jack Minns, Aubrey Moore, Mary Morse, Megan Richardson and Gaby Talbert all earned Gold Keys and their work can be seen until February 21 at PNCA.  Silver Key and Honorable Mention students were Maya Friedman, Elena Klonsky, Ruby McShane, Eloise Reverman, John Langford, Clara Debrun-Sittler, Alexis Henrickson, and Ryan Richter.  Many students earned multiple awards.

Food Photography by 5-6 Students

Chelsea Goldsmith

Ellie Pagnano

The Photo 5-6 students just finished up two major projects: A food photography unit in which they created both fine art food photographs and are finalizing a cookbook of desserts that they made and then photographed for a class cookbook.  The cookbook will be available for purchase through Blurb.com in a few weeks.  Here are some of the scrumptious photos they made.

Larsen Hodges

Sydney Denham

Besides working on all the food photography, 5-6 students also did a collaborative project with Mr. Schmidt's Applied Design class.  This was a project for the Portland Jazz Festival.  Some of the works the students did are below.  You can see all of the work at The Cleaners venue on Tuesday, February 7 from 10 am til 8.  Both the Lincoln  and Grant Jazz bands will be performing around 5.  The 4 winning high school and 4 winning middle school designs will then be exhibited in the city Target's windows on February 13.

Photographer John Langford-Designer Adam Mcinroy

Photographer Maya Friedman-Designer Alex Denman Still

Photographer Maya Lomanto-Designer John Langford

Photographer Simone Peters-Designer Sammy Gold

Finally a goodbye to the great Visual Studies 1 classes.  They move on to the 2nd half of the course with Ms. Windle as their teacher.  I am looking forward to meeting the students that she has had first semester.  Here are a few pieces from the final magazine project that those students did.

Cover by Declan Cruz

Cover by Addie Ferriday

Photospread by Addie Ferriday

Cover by Emily Prince

Photospread by Emily Prince

Ad by Alex Vinton

Cover by Alex Vinton