So the time had to come. Five weeks have flown by and today was my last #phonarnation class with a truly great bunch of kids at Bridgewater House, Carrick-on-Suir, Ireland.
Part of the ethos of #phonar and #phonarnation is an open, and open-source approach. Each local mentor tailored the course somewhat towards their own strengths and photographic or documentary practice. As I’m a portrait photographer & visual storyteller, working with photographs, video and audio, I modified the course somewhat and added some extra activities for the kids. Typically we’d have a class in the morning and stay close to the phonarnation description. Then, in the afternoon we’d do some audio recording, recently video, and a few weeks back we held our own, small-scale version of the #phonarnation “Book in a Box” initiative which is happening throughout libraries in the USA as part of the American iterations of the course. And the students produced a number of book review interviews where they gave their thoughts on a particular photographer’s work. You can see Eucharia’s interview here
This week, we progressed from our previous session, where most of the students interviewed each other using audio only, adding the extra layer of complexity of video. The students ran the interviews themselves, with a bit of basic guidance in lighting, composition and sound-recording. They were simple and helped the students to build on some of the skills they learnt during the “Telling Someone’s Story” class.
So, here’s the first of a number of videos. This is Rehan, who wants to be a journalist being interviewed and filmed by Joseph. Mohammed acted as lighting assistant