Year 2 Photography - West Lakes Shore School

Year 2 students from West Lakes Shore School looked at the photography of Gunditjmara Djabwurrung artist Hayley Millar Baker, focusing on her "I will survive" collection from 2020. Students spoke about memories and favourite places and to what they can mean to people. They then shared their favourite memories at school and which place brought them the most joy; the oval, playground, tree, library and art room were amongst some of their answers. 

Students talked about posing at their favourite place at school and which poses would fit perfectly into the environment. They practised poses in the art room before heading out in pairs with iPads to take photos of them in their special place doing their first movement. The next two poses had to be photographed with a plain background wall or the green screen in the art room. 

Using PicCollage, students used the first posed photo at their special place to set as the background. They then added the next two photos after cutting out the background, manipulating the photo version of themselves to fit into the scene.

- Lisa Zappia, Art teacher, West Lakes Shore School

Hayley Millar Baker is a research-based artist who uses photography to interrogate the way memories are made through acts of remembering and misremembering. She reflects upon the potential for personal recollections and historical accounts to become improvised and embellished. Millar Baker explores human experiences through a lens that is non-exclusive and non-linear. Her perspective is connected within memory and contemporary storytelling.