Most of the people is these pictures were in their Sophmore year of high school when these were taken. I was in my Junior year. Simon was also a Junior. All the rest are Sophmores... This was at my third annual Halloween Party, as always, a slumber party (minus the boys). And it's always a blast! (There are two of my parties that no one wants to miss every year: Halloween and my Birthday.)
Just to tell everyone: no one is high in these pictures, although they may look like they are stoned. Trust me, we're nutz enough sober, we don't need to add drugs to the mix. In fact, I would be very frightened to see any of us on anything at these parties, seriously... Don't even want to think about it.
Let me tell you a little bit about people's reactions to these pieces. I would recommend that if you like to look at art fresh without any preconceptions that you skip over this part and come back to it later after you've looked at the photos (or not, it's up to you).
The first thing out of my teachers mouth when she saw these was, "What did you guys do? It looks like something out of S&M or something!" Once she said this, several other students agreed, and I can see how they could be taken in a dark light, but S&M? This had not even occured to me. A lot of other things had occured to me, but "S&M" wasn't really one of them. (It's just not something that immediately pops into my head when I think of these people.) Simon does look a little interesting if you flip that one upside-down, but that's the only thing that makes me think in an any way sexual direction (click on it and turn your neck a bit and I think you'll see what I'm talking about -- no one has missed it yet, and he was utterly horrified when he saw it, but let me put it up anyway.). I was intrigued at first by their take on things, until it got through that they took this as a definite bad thing. Why so furvently "a bad thing?" I don't get it...
Now, I'd like to explain a little about my photography teacher. It is a well known fact among the students that she sees sexual innuendoes just about everywhere she looks. She saw it in a pepper for goodness sake! Her assessment of my work in this case was still very surprising to me and I think Emma too, who was in that class with me at the time, if I remember correctly. In the end, Teach gave me a B-... (it could have been much worse, but she was in a forgiving mood that day) because to her, it was "a bunch of teenagers fooling around on a playground over the weekend." That was my exact goal, but she said it like it was a bad thing. ::shrugs:: I don't get it, even now. It's not bad for my first try at photographing people in any way, shape, or form (up until then it was nothing but landscapes). I think she needs to be more specific when she says, "give me 5 prints, any subject, due Friday..." (notice my more than 5 for extra credit...) Mais c'est la vie! |
