SCHOOL SPOTLIGHT

Concord-Carlisle High School Teacher Expects Curiosity, Experimentation

For nearly 20 years, David Prifti has been using photography to teach teenagers about creativity, self-expression, and critical thinking at Concord-Carlisle High School in Concord, Massachusetts. Along the way, he's built a progression of course offerings that would be the envy of some college art departments.

Around 250 students per year take courses in introductory and advanced photography. The classes fit within an art program that also offers two-dimensional art, beginning and advanced digital imaging, ceramics, sculpture, and video production.

"The goal of our program is to help develop perceptive and articulate young people who can think analytically, who have a sense of their vision and an ability to confidently express themselves through photography," says Prifti. "It's important for our students, since most of our graduates do not enroll in art schools. Most of our students move on to competitive liberal arts colleges."

All photography students keep journals in which they take notes, document their work, and write self-assessments. To take advantage of their proximity to Boston's vibrant art scene, every student is required to visit one or two photography exhibitions in the Boston area each semester and write formal reviews in which they analyze and discuss an artist's works.

The school is able to complement the region's cultural offerings with its own art gallery, which shows work by New England artists, as well as students. It's fitting for teens who attend high school in a town with a rich history, particularly in the arts and literature. Prifti notes, "We're home to the Alcotts, Thoreau, and Emerson, as well as the Old North Bridge and other Revolutionary War sites."

Introductory students first learn about optics, light, and basic photo history, and then construct simple pinhole cameras. "The pinhole project is a vehicle to introduce all the basic skills and processes used in photography, from how light-sensitive materials work to using an enlarger to make contact prints,"Prifti says. "The first photograph students see in class is an image from a camera they created by hand."

Prifti quickly teaches introductory students the basics of shooting and enlarging 35mm film, and then moves on to a series of shooting assignments designed to help students learn to see and formulate their ideas into expressive imagery. Along the way he also shows them work from the history of photography, from Helen Levitt and Cartier-Bresson to Lee Freidlander and Sally Mann.

More than 60 students per semester take Advanced Photography, in which they work on clearly defined projects and get weekly presentations of various techniques and alternative or historical processes. Topics include cyanotype, liquid emulsion, hand coloring, collage, Polaroid transfer, infrared, photojournalism, and night photography.

Digital imaging was introduced into the curriculum more than a decade ago and has grown into a series of separate classes. "But advanced students often use Photoshop in my classes with various alternative imaging processes," Prifti says. "We have a Macintosh G5 with a Nikon Coolscan 4000 in our classroom."

For this issue of teachingphoto.com, Prifti is sharing a set of his assignment handouts—including his pinhole assignment and a variety of shooting assignments for students of different levels—course overviews, and grading guidelines:

See examples of student work

David Prifti can be reached at dprifti@colonial.net. Website: http://www.Prifti.net/