New teacher Adam Perry is teaching the new photography class at Northwood, which is available for anyone interested in learning the basics of photography. Every week, students learn something new, like composition or how to tell a story through pictures.
“In all my classes I spent pretty much the whole first week talking about stories,” Perry said. “I want people writing stories, I want people acknowledging stories, because this is what life is made up of, a million little stories all over the place that are happening all around us every second, every day, all the time. A camera is a great way to capture some of those.”
Perry wants his students to take lots of photographs and capture all of the stories in everyday life. He also wants his students to recognize photography as a fine art form. Perry explains that photography is more than just a hobby, and it is a talent to be able to take good pictures.
“You know, a camera has been made into this little microscopic hole in a phone, and that’s what I feel like the majority, not everybody, but the majority of people at the high school level probably think of,” Perry said. “The kind of artistic nature behind it, or photography as an art form, has kind of been lost.”
Perry wants his students to always be taking photographs, but he doesn’t want to pressure them. He wants them be interested in taking those photos themselves, instead of taking them as an assignment.
Natalie Hayman, a student in Perry’s photography class, said that she really enjoys the new class. She said that in regular core classes, she is learning a lot, but there isn’t a lot of self-expression involved. In photography, she feels like she can learn how to express herself and her thoughts through the pictures.
“I’ve started to learn more about how to take pictures and different things you can take pictures of. It also helps with the ability to express yourself,” Hayman said.
– Leah Kallam