By Chloe Zhu
This year, six of Collingwood’s very own artists were selected as finalists in Chester Field’s Photography Contest. They were chosen from among hundreds of students in the Lower Mainland for their creative, original, and distinctive photographic approaches to the theme: Global Warning. While all six works of art radiate their own unique identity, and each artist can be seen to have the gift of extraordinary creation. All of the finalists can agree on the fact that Collingwood’s Arts Program and its faculty have provided an almost constant source of inspiration for them.
Howard Zhang, a Chester Field’s finalist, gave a shout-out to Mr. Francis (who also happens to be my, and the greatest, advisor). He goes on to explain that “an inspirational figure I have is Mr. Francis for being able to provide me with complex cameras, art room supplies, and advice to make my work as best as possible.”
For Annalise McCallum (grade 10), the magic of photography enables her to “feel the hidden corners of the world.” To be a photographer, for her, is to live in a state of deeper understanding and perception of everything around you. Her piece “The New Nature” certainly expresses her thoughts on the place us humans occupy in this world; as she so fittingly describes it, it is a work focused on “human sameness and expansion.”
This year, six of Collingwood’s very own artists were selected as finalists in Chester Field’s Photography Contest. They were chosen from among hundreds of students in the Lower Mainland for their creative, original, and distinctive photographic approaches to the theme: Global Warning. While all six works of art radiate their own unique identity, and each artist can be seen to have the gift of extraordinary creation. All of the finalists can agree on the fact that Collingwood’s Arts Program and its faculty have provided an almost constant source of inspiration for them.
Howard Zhang, a Chester Field’s finalist, gave a shout-out to Mr. Francis (who also happens to be my, and the greatest, advisor). He goes on to explain that “an inspirational figure I have is Mr. Francis for being able to provide me with complex cameras, art room supplies, and advice to make my work as best as possible.”
For Annalise McCallum (grade 10), the magic of photography enables her to “feel the hidden corners of the world.” To be a photographer, for her, is to live in a state of deeper understanding and perception of everything around you. Her piece “The New Nature” certainly expresses her thoughts on the place us humans occupy in this world; as she so fittingly describes it, it is a work focused on “human sameness and expansion.”
“The New Nature”
“This image shows how natural landscapes are being deconstructed to make room for human expansion and greed. Using repetition I showed human sameness, a phenomenon showing humans not as unique as we like to think we are. The houses represent the artificial world being built around us.” - Annalise McCallum, grade 10
While for Annie, the most important part of the art is creativity and idiosyncratic ideas, Howard Zhang (grade 11) affirms that “the most important thing about photography is being able to capture your subject properly.” This is a type of expertise which allows for the most effective and clear communication with the viewer, and thus, the grasping of the artist’s message. The variety of input and opinions coming from these CW arts students truly astounded me, and it is no wonder six of them were selected as finalists. Each has an independent yet inclusive and approachable thought process that allows them to create true masterpieces.
"The Perpetrator"
“The message of my image is that the Earth is a victim of climate change, who is the perpetrator. The techniques I used to create this image include messing around with saturation, brightness, and exposure levels in photoshop, and using pastel, string, sticky notes, and thumbtacks for the investigation board. The main inspiration behind my piece is the investigation boards you would see in detective movies like Sherlock Holmes.” - Howard Zhang, grade 11
When it comes to advice, both offer sound and expert tips: expanding your skillset with new mediums and developing familiarity with them lead to versatile shots (as Howard so patiently explained to me). Another piece of advice is to be able to accept that “not every photo is going to be ‘the one.’” Doing so ultimately pushes the artist to new levels (Annie, with the gift of experience, told me).
In the end, the diversity of the artists, their own personal experiences, as well as their innate talents so well developed by the arts program here at Collingwood, have been and will continue to be, the key to their inventive success.
In the end, the diversity of the artists, their own personal experiences, as well as their innate talents so well developed by the arts program here at Collingwood, have been and will continue to be, the key to their inventive success.
"SoCal 2050"
“I used a shot I had taken from the Santa Monica pier while on vacation there. I turned the sky a sickly green and the ocean blood red to represent an extreme version of our future. However, I left the people in the shot unedited to represent our society’s indifference towards these issues.” - Simon Burns, grade 11
“This photo is representing how industrial machinery is taking away the beauty of nature from this world. The photo focuses you on the oil plant in the water and the smokestacks on the beach, but once you look at the bigger picture, nature distracts you from this. Using a drone, I was able to capture an aerial shot of the coast. Then, through photoshop, I edited in the smokestacks, the oil plant, and the oil spill in the water.” - Presley Bosa, grade 10
“I collected juice boxes over the course of a week, I assumed that this part of the project was going to be the most time consuming but the shocking part was that it took me around 3 days. I used repetition of the juice boxes and tried to make everything identical, clean and modern. By spraypainting the juice boxes red it gave the piece a ‘warning’ theme, but also a clean and calm peace looking at it first.
The idea behind my image is that in modern society, we are continuing to create a long line of garbage for the next few generations. I wanted to symbolize the factory line of garbage that we are making with single-use materials.“ - Bella Lawton-Guistra, grade 11
The idea behind my image is that in modern society, we are continuing to create a long line of garbage for the next few generations. I wanted to symbolize the factory line of garbage that we are making with single-use materials.“ - Bella Lawton-Guistra, grade 11
“The Earth as a human might be the strongest yet most damaged of us all. The Earth as a human may not have many more birthdays to celebrate. I created this image to bring awareness to the lack of promise for another year for our planet. The cake is decorated to look like Earth, and using photoshop, I recreated the Earth’s core within it.” - Doris Ni, grade 11