Thursday, July 7, 2011

Shedding Light on the Photography Studio at Artists for Humanity



The Photography studio at Artists for Humanity is unique in that it also serves a function of preparing college portfolios for AFH teen artists. When an artist in the painting studio or the sculpture studio comes into the photography studio and asks for a print out of their portfolio on glossy paper, the photography teens waste no time getting the job done. This process of creating a portfolio to send to colleges would take a typical high school student a few days and would probably cost a few hundred dollars to get it professionally done. However, at AFH the teens light and shoot the artwork free of charge, and produce impressive results.

At the AFH photography studio, youth update the artists’ artwork database twice every month. Kim Huynh, working in photography for over two years, says that it “takes about 5 or 6 people for the whole process.” She tells me they are in charge of, “measuring the size of the paintings, positioning the lighting, shooting the photographs of the paintings, and importantly, updating the images onto the computer.” Each painting is organized by the artists name, the size and a brief description of the artwork. The photography students make sure to highlight the artwork in the best light, both literally and figuratively. They shoot the artwork several times and under three different exposure, from dark to light. Kim tells me that each teen has his and her own folder that can be easily found by searching the size of the artwork the student is looking for, or a brief keyword description of the artwork. The whole process takes the photo students about two days and ends in an extensive database of an estimate of thousands of art pieces!

Some of the most talented and unique artists at Artists for Humanity have their selected pieces publicised on the AFH website for thousands of people to view. This is made possible by the photography teens shooting their work under professional lighting, creating the best possible quality and updating the artwork online. Just like that, poof! their work can be easily accessed online therefore increasing the chances that others will look at their art, admire it and offer them creative ventures. Now that’s a moment captured perfectly!


Tara Pine

1 comment:

Abner Nancy said...

At the AFH photography studio, youth update the artists’ artwork database twice every month. Kim Huynh, working in photography for over two years, says that it “takes about 5 or 6 people for the whole process.” She tells me they are in charge of, “measuring the size of the paintings, positioning the lighting, shooting the photographs of the paintings, and importantly, updating the images onto the computer.” Each painting is organized by the artists name, the size and a brief description of the artwork. The photography students make sure to highlight the artwork in the best light, both literally and figuratively. They shoot the artwork several times and under three