By Peter Bernardino
Over the past decade, photography has been one of the most rapidly evolving forms of art. And with the advent of artificial intelligence and advances in editing software, photography has become more digital than ever before. For Ms. Walter’s photography classes, this has been helpful due to the destruction of the darkroom in the community center, which allowed for analog photography to take place.
“I would say digital is a lot easier,” Ms. Walter told me as we sat in the brand new photography center looking over Railey Field. “Digital photography has apertures and shutters… but besides from editing, it’s not very tactile.” This lack of a tactile experience doesn’t make photography as memorable for advanced-level students because it doesn’t create the kind of novel hands-on experience they would have developing their own photos in a darkroom.
Because of this, Ms. Walter wanted to give honors photography students a taste of unique forms of analog photography. Ms. Walter told me that analog is more involved, making it suitable for advanced-level students. “You’re dealing with a little more math, a little more chemistry, a little more physics,” she said.
Historically, photography has been analog, using chemical reactions to create viewable images. Unlike digital photography, which is known for producing crisp photos, analog photography is known for its nostalgic look because photos are developed on film. Yet analog photography is arguably the more creative form of photography because it can be used in unexpected ways.
For example, analog photography can involve embedding photos into materials. This exciting form of photography is exactly what Ms. Walter’s class had been missing due to the lack of a darkroom, so she decided to take her honors photography students to SCAD on September 25th to work on unique forms of analog photography.
When Ms. Walter took her students on the trip, they worked directly with a professor at the college. “He is primarily a printmaker, but he also does alternative photo techniques,” she said. The alternative photo technique is called Photogravure, a printing process in which images are etched into metal plates. Afterward, ink is applied to the plate, and its picture is printed onto paper.
Ms. Walter told me that the trip was very thrilling because “every student submitted a photograph and the professor at SCAD prepped these plates for them,” and that they were “there all day to do it.
Another reason why Ms. Walter set up the trip was to help her students develop the portfolios they were working on in class. “I want them to come up with a project that they’re committed to… it’s an independent study to help them… with college applications and supplements,” she said. “I also want them to continue with photography outside of school.” Ultimately, the goal of this trip was to inspire students to pursue an interesting form of photography.
One student who has found a love for specialized analog photography is senior Page Duffard. For Page’s portfolio, she is doing a similar form of printmaking to photogravure, but instead of engraving the photo in metal, she is putting her photos on leaves and teabags.
Page believes that the trip to SCAD helped her develop skills for alternative photography because “most of the ways that we’ve done photography up until now were with software… It’s nice to be able to do photography without a lot of technology.”
Paige liked the SCAD trip and enjoys her project because it’s a “mixing of different styles of art and medium.” This allows her to be more creative with her artwork. Her project has also made her realize that the joy in photography comes from the “process, not just the final product.”
Paige hopes to continue with niche forms of photography after she leaves Lovett. Ms. Walter’s enthusiasm is what made her stick with art in the first place. “I’m not very good at drawing, but I do love art. So photography was a nice way for me to continue doing art without necessarily being good at drawing,” she said. “I love that I am still able to create physical art in a world that is rapidly digitizing.”
