Model Artwork

So, in order to make great art, we need to study great art - what we call "Model Artwork." Here are a few examples by Lewis Hine, one of the first photojournalists:


Hine took this portrait on the Lower East Side. We'll be doing the same.


He took this photo of Italian immigrants at Ellis Island. We'll learn about the immigrants back then, and then take pictures of immigrants on the L.E.S. now.

Good, right? I can't wait to meet the students and see what they think.

Welcome to One of Working Playground's Network ArtSpace Blogs!

What is This?
This blog is a part of an afterschool digital photography and mural My New York model program at New Design High School.

Essential Question
How can we interpret to re-invent?

Foundation Statement
How do we learn history? How do the ways that we learn history change what we think about it? Which incidents become Important Historical Events? In this My New York after-school program, we will complete a commission for the Tenement Museum in collaboration with Ben Rojas’ mural class. Working as professional artists, we will use photography to research neighborhood history and the museum. We will use our photographs as source material for a mural that will reflect the Lower East Side’s immigration story as well as the museum’s programs. The mural will be painted on several metal pull-down gates at the museum and shared on this blog!

After presenting the mural design to the museum, we will move on to photographing the neighborhood’s contemporary immigrants and interviewing them about places that tell their stories. We will study photographic portraits and go to the Paley Center to create radio interviews. We document immigrant issues, communities, demographics and services in the Lower East Side. We will also experience documentation’s subjectivity and will draw our own conclusions, synthesizing our observations into historical documents.

When and Where?
New Design High School/The Tenement Museum
Lower East Side
New York, NY

Resources

Here are some DVDs I'd like to get and show my classes:


Reporting: America at War


The Fourth World War


American Photography: A Century of Images

And now for some books:


Subway by Bruce Davidson


Brooklyn Gang by Bruce Davidson


East Side Stories by Joe Rodriguez

And here are some dream field trips, when we have time:


Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art at the Brooklyn Museum


Jacob Lawrence at the Studio Museum


Gerda Taro at International Center of Photography

-Alice