Finding Art All Around Us

The Artsology Essay Series, #2, by Mark McKinney    

I recently heard about a web site that allows people to upload and post their digital photographs in order to share them with friends and family. But the reason this web site was in the news was because numerous people who had been in and around the areas affected by the London bombings had posted pictures of the chaos and destruction. The web site had been transformed from a collection of wedding and baby pictures to that of a news site, relaying images to the world almost immediately after the bombings took place.

With that element of curiosity driving me to explore the site, I found myself quickly distracted by something that surprised me - mixed in with the personal snapshots were countless artistic visions, a wondrous gallery of artistic ideas captured by photographers from all around the world. I found myself going through and finding new and interesting images and a community that was sharing artistic ideas.

Coming from a background of painting and drawing, those are the areas I generally turn to when encouraging my children to "make art." But seeing the amazing photographic images, it made me realize that there could be a lot my kids could learn about art by putting a camera in their hands.

First and foremost, composition: how would they frame the subject of their picture? Centered, off-centered, from which side, from which angle? How about the lighting, or shadows … how would those elements get incorporated into the picture? In some ways it could even feel like a scientific experiment, trying different things and then downloading the pictures to see what results have come from a range of efforts.

A common theme among these artistic pictures which had great appeal to me was the photographers' attempts to capture real-life images in a way that became abstract. For example, details of something that might not be noticed at first which then reveal more information. Some images were like a puzzle, trying to figure out what they were or how they originated. It seemed like a whole new world was being revealed by the eyes and imaginations of numerous photographers who had captured their own interpretation of reality. Using a camera can be a process that can stimulate young minds to explore the world around them and help them to look at things in new and different ways. It's a valuable lesson, to not always accept everything at face value, to explore and better understand the world in front of us.

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