Caledon Enterprise
The Alton Mills Arts Centre hosted ‘Painting with Light,’ an exhibit showcasing the best works from graduating students in Robert F. Hall’s Grade 12 photography class.
Community members got a chance to meet the artists and hear what they had to say about their work at an opening reception on June 5.
What was unique about this exhibit and the very small class of six students is that they have learned how to wield what some may call an ancient artifact in this digital age – the film photography camera.
Rob Ciccotelli has been teaching film photography at Robert F. Hall for nearly 20 years as they are designated as a special arts school.
It is a program that is not too commonly found among high schools across Canada but Hall students get the opportunity to spend a full semester of Grade 11 and 12 learning the true art of producing photographs in a way that hardly any youth today have ever experienced – in a dark room.
“All the digital kids will just put it on an auto program and they often don’t know what the aperture is really doing or what the shutter is really doing, what exposure means and all that stuff,” said Ciccotelli.
“But my guys, that’s just part of their lingo. They learn the basics of photography much better.”
Shandra Romanoff was one of Ciccotelli’s students that has fallen in love with the idea of film photography and plans to pursue it as she ventures into the post-secondary world.
“Film photography is so unique and it’s so cool to do something that’s so old – no one does any of this stuff any more like developing film, exposure, aperture – everything is digital and this class really allows you to learn how to do the technical, difficult stuff,” Romanoff explained.
“When you are in the dark room, it’s so different than manipulating photos on Photoshop. The process is so long and that’s what kind of makes you want to do it more, when you are taking the pictures you really think about what you are taking because you only have one roll of 24 photos versus thousands on a digital camera.”
Laura Dicarlo is another student who has become completely entranced by the idea of film photography.
“I applied to colleges and universities for photography, it’s something that I have really grown to love so I am really excited to continue on with it,” she said.
Dicarlo chose about 10 photographs for the exhibit, three of which were her favourites from a “Film Noire” series that she had written. She told the story in a series of 12 photos that she had taken after making costumes, designing a set, and scouting models.
The series was a bit of a dark and mysterious tale set in the 1920s that told a story of lives lost and murders committed in the name of love.
Ciccotelli said the exhibit has grown slowly over the years and will potentially be expanding even further.
“I think next year we might be making some changes so that we can do an even bigger show that would include the rest of the art students as well as the photography students so it may be expanding in the near future,” he said.