NATALIE FEATHER Return Home

In January 2011 Auchinraith Primary school children moved into a new state of the art school designed by RMJM Architects.

I was commissioned to make a photographic light box project with children at Auchinraith Primary school to record, remember and respond to the old Victorian building. The photographic process and involvement of the children with the project explores the shift from the old school building which is very important to the local community to a new school building. The images made are installed in the foyer of the new school as a permanent art work, comprising of five photographic light boxes, in many ways the images which are hyper real, preserve the essence of the Victorian building inside the light boxes.

Photography workshops were held at the school for all the years to take part in, this gave the children the chance to respond to and react to the ideas they had as individuals towards the old school building; it also gave the children the chance to process the idea of moving from one school to another, and to understand the importance of how environments effect the way we learn and interact. The children worked in classes for an hour with me the photographic artist.

Firstly an explanation of the idea of the project was discussed with the children, then a walk around the interior and exterior showing the children all the interesting and unusual features which can be found in old buildings ,which are often overlooked in the everyday. The children were given disposable cameras to take with them on this walk around so they could each respond to the building.

The second part of the workshops involved the children making postcards for themselves using black and white copies of images of the old and the new school to create small montages of the two schools. This gave the children something to take away from the project whilst at the same time gave them an insight into the process of making art works and learning about photographic art.

I was lucky to have almost complete creative freedom on this project, and look forward to working with RMJM again!

One Response to “Light Box Commission”

1. w sayell says:

   May 11, 2011 at 2:56 pm

   hi Natalie

   The images are fantastic! Where did you get your light boxes made?

   Many Thanks

   W Sayell