I would tell her that she can't use them for AP or class work. Those
incredible faces--as shown in the Nat.Geog.
book that came out before Christmas are famous and totally
recognizable. If she is a talented student--give her a digital camera
and have her photograph people of various ethnic looks and use them.
She can look thru the mag. and see how the faces were treated with
respect to lighting and composition or as a reference for costumes, but
the face must be her own work.
>>> eoolspeg@nbnet.nb.ca 01/05/2005 2:48:34 PM >>>
I have a very good art student (technically) who, like many students,
enjoys drawing from National Geographic and other sources of
photographs of people who live outside of N.America. She is taking an
independent study and is still rooting around for a concentration. She
wants to do "female ethnic faces." I spoke with her today about the
idea of "the gaze" and how women have raised the issue of being looked
at as "the other." We also talked about the meaning behind these
photographs as to dress, status, cultural context and so on. I also
brought up the idea of racism, particularly looking at "exotic" faces
and appropriating them in art work. The AP poster is specific on the
issue of using photographs--copies are not acceptable. She knows this.
In my grade 12 class we deal with all kinds of issues around photos and
their use in artwork, but she has not yet taken that class.
My question to you all, should you have time/inclination to answer, is,
just how do you deal with this kind of...can I say, appropriation of
images from the likes of national geographic etc. Many of these photos
are super appealing. I use them myself sometimes, but I make it clear
that they are part of my source material.
In the end I asked my student to think about these things and why she
was attracted to the particular photos and how she could dig deeper
than the surface appeal. Any insighs you might have on the subject
would be much appreciated.
Peggy
