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Afro-Punk Free School Photography/art activities for youth/adult pairs.

The adult and young person will each be doing the activity. Adults will have youth partners in view at all times

When youve tried some of these, create new activities relating to seeing, composing, expressing, and

storytelling and do those as well. Write them down. Come up with new categories. Create activities for those.

1. Seeing

a) Walk quietly around Commodore Barry park. Stop in front of a view that means something to you. Or that

calls out to you for some reason. Watch the students skateboarding and riding BMX. Stand and take it in. Then,sit, and look at the same view from ground level. Imagine this view black and white or in different colors. Take

in the sounds and smells and textures related to what you are seeing. See how it changes over time, as you sit

there. Draw a simple drawing, with no concern for how it looks. Be aware of what you see. Take photos.

b) Do this around the neighborhood. Draw and take photos.

c) Do this with a person.

2. Composing

a) Look at a view. Observe the AfroPunk skatepark when its empty and when its filled with skaters and BMX

riders. See the dark and light balance of the scene. See the large and simple shapes. Change your viewpointslightly. See how the composition has changed. How the shapes have changed in relation to each other. Change

your view point again. Place yourself in the viewpoint with the composition you choose. Create a simple line

drawing of your chosen composition. Keep it basic with no concern for realism. Just composition. Take photos.

b) Look at a person. Do the same as above. Try just the face, then the whole body. Notice the persons

relationship to the environment and how that changes with your changing point of view. Take photos.

3. Expressing

a) Find a view in the park that expresses something to you. Stand there and feel that. Note how it changes for

you internally and externally as you stand there. Draw and take photos.

b) Do this around the neighborhood. Draw and take photos.

c) Do this with a person. Draw and take photos.

d) Draw one another at the same time, in your youth/adult pairs. Find the subtle expression in one another.

Show this in your drawing, being concerned less with realism and more with expression. Take photos.

e) Create abstract compositions with pencil and paper that express something to you. Do the same with realistic

compositions. Add words if that works. Create abstract compositions with your camera.

4. Storytellinga) Stand in the same place in Commodore Barry park watching the same scene until a story emerges. Draw this

story as a story board. Take photos of a sequence of images that tell a story. Look at Farragut Houses as a

backdrop to the park, then reverse your view and look at Ingersoll Houses, PS 287, the BQE.

b) Tell a story using someones face. Draw and photograph this story.

c) Stand in a sequence of places to tell a story. Draw and photograph this story.

d) Follow the same person doing the same activity (skate/BMX/art) for a while. Draw or take photos in a

sequence that tells a story.

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Composing, Advanced.

After (or while) working on some of the earlier activities, do some advance composing.

Foreground and background

Create compositions with things in the front, or foreground, and things in the background. Look at the AfroPunk

skatepark from a variety of angles. Walk around Commodore Barry Park. Walk around the neighborhood. See,

draw, and photograph these compositions. Switch the foreground and background objects and see how this

changes the picture, and the importance of the objects. Change your own perspective by going to the other side

of the scene. Draw and photograph the same scene with different foregrounds and backgrounds.

Negative space

Create compositions where the negative space interests you. The negative space around an object can look as

much like an object in a drawing or photo as the object itself. Practice seeing negative space without drawing or

photographing it. Then, draw and photograph it.

Aerial perspective

See how something close to you is larger than something farther away. Draw and photograph this.

Draw a person in perspective. Draw them lying down, feet or head toward you. Draw them foreshortened, and

exaggerate this, so their feet or head looks huge. Find scenes in the park where you can see far away. See how

lines run parallel to each other, converge, and run away from each other. See how this creates the illusion ofdepth, or perspective. Draw a thing in perspective. Draw a scene in perspective.

Atmospheric perspective

See how something close to you is sharper than something farther away. Draw and photograph this. See how

trees in the distance are fuzzier. See how a city skyline is blueish and softer focus. See how this changes with

distance and weather. Draw and photograph this. Exaggerate it with your drawings and photos.

Balance and imbalance

Draw and photograph compositions that are balanced and imbalanced, in black/white, color, shape, foreground

and background, and any other way you can express balance and imbalance.

Movement

Draw and photograph people in movement (skate/bmx and passers by). See how blurs, multiple images in

sequence, and body language create movement in your composition.

Meaning and Storytelling with Composition

Explore a scene or a story in depth. Create a variety of compositions. Look at them side by side. Show them to

other people and see if your have expressed the meaning and story with your compositions. Choose the

composition that expresses your meaning best.