Bang, Bang, She Shot Me – a photography book with a difference has just been launched in Longford. The 100- page book is different in its emphasis on fun and creativity, and is initially aimed at second level students, but can be used by anyone looking to take photography up as a hobby. There’s also a strong emphasis on photography as an art form, which only adds to its uniqueness. The book emerged from the success of Longford School of Photography Programme, which is now entering its third year. Programme Director Shelley Corcoran devised a course to work with transition year students in the county, with support from the County Arts Office and VEC, who previously established the Midland College of Photography. Shelley spends two hours in each school every week during the school year, going through various photography techniques, technical aspects of photography and photography as an art form.
She said: “It is kind of a text book where students can go and have a look at techniques and understand how to take a photo, but it’s also a showcase of their work from the past two years as well.” County Longford Arts Officer, Fergus Kennedy, added: “There’s a particular emphasis in the book as well; we didn’t want to write another manual on how to take a photograph with a DSLR camera.
“The emphasis in this book is on art photography; it’s on developing students’ visual awareness and encouraging them to express themselves through the medium of photography. We take a kind of fun approach where chapters are a little left field in topic.
“The whole idea is to reach out and engage young people in the fun of photography in the hope that they will take it more seriously and acquire the technical skills in greater depth afterwards. It’s detailed enough for people to know what aperture, ISO, shutter speed is, and there are photographs to illustrate what the technical side is, but there are probably a larger amount of chapters that are artbased, like exploring different themes, emotions, moods and that kind of thing. The technical aspect (of the book) is just a means to an end. The book really emphasises that photography is an art form.”
The book will be used as a curriculum support for the future students taking part in the photography module tutored by Shelley, but will also be available for general sale. The book, which was designed by Noel Strange, was launched in Backstage Theatre in October.
