artists statement

Artists Statement

Starting my project I was really unsure what I wanted to do, but since I grew up in a mostly white suburb, I’ve never really been exposed to the inner city schooling. Spanish was taught as an elective class and no on really spoke Spanish fluently. At Escuela Vieau though, Spanish was the dominant language. Though, I didn’t speak Spanish well, the kids helped me remember what I had learned from high school, but also spoke to me in English unless they didn’t want me to know what they were saying. So what I was trying to get at with my camera was the differences between the elementary school I went to and this elementary school. I’ve never really gotten into photography. I’ve only been the one getting my picture taken. I have never owned a camera so this was going to be a different experience for me. I had to borrow my mom’s camera to take pictures, so I had to play around with it just to get used to the functions and all of that, but once I got the hang of it I was ready to go. Since we were unable to take pictures of the kids, and I still haven’t heard otherwise, I focused on the areas that I did the majority of my service learning. I took pictures of the gymnasium where we would play soccer almost every time I was there. I took pictures of the goals we used and the pictures of a soccer player and soccer ball they had painted on the walls. I knew soccer was a popular sport in Mexico so I guessed it would probably be popular with these kids since most of them were of Mexican heritage. I think I could have used some of the kids playing soccer, but somehow not incorporate their face, I was trying to think of a way to do this but the only thing I could come up with is the kids feet dribbling the ball while playing. The only thing was that the pictures didn’t turn out the way I wanted them because of the fast movement of the game. I think once I get used to taking pictures, I’ll be able to produce better quality shots and hopefully be able to document my experiences a little better.