“Old School” Inspires New Pics

The photos hanging in the basement of the Academy Center are not only creative prints of various areas around campus, but also snapshots of old and new meshed together, exhibiting creative techniques of students at Exeter.This Photography One project is entitled “Old School,” assigned to students in art instructor Rebecca Barsi’s class. Students were asked to create a photomontage that combined Exeter’s past with present. Barsi provided the class with images of areas on campus from the late 1800s to the 1950s. Students found the location in which the original image had been taken, captured today’s version of the location and merged the two shots using Adobe Photoshop.

“The students really got excited about it because of their connection to Exeter. They are interested in Exeter's history and were able to create their own compositions that will ultimately become their legacy and a new chapter of history at Exeter,” Barsi said.

Students’ collage-like photos show black-and-white images mixed in with different areas on campus. “I placed certain students from an old photo in the new Assembly Hall benches. That created an effect like the ghosts of Exeter's past students were still sitting in our Assembly Hall, which I loved,” lower Jacob Pressman said.“It made me appreciate the rich history and legacy of Exeter so much more,” Pressman said. “The merging of black-and-white and color photos also creates a dynamic composition.”The project was inspired by works from numerous blogs linked with a website called Ghosts of History. The site merges images from the First and Second World Wars with photographs from today. “These ghostly images are really intriguing and allow you an interesting way to connect with the past. With the knowledge and tools the Photography I students have, I thought it would be interesting for them to experiment with merging and collaging old and new images from PEA,” Barsi explained.The vintage photographs of Exeter were provided courtesy of Tom Wharton, assistant to Ed Desrochers, the Academy archivist. The collection consisted of 68 photos from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Students agreed that the project was not only different from others, but enjoyable as well. “I think the assignment was a great idea, especially because of Exeter's rich history and long-standing traditions,” Pressman said.The project not only showed students more about Exeter’s past, but helped improve their Photoshop skills. “They had learned different tools and techniques from Photoshop and had to taken it upon themselves to figure out how best to blend the images together,” Barsi explained.“It was a very interesting way to learn new Photoshop tools as well as deal with perspective restraints in the old image. It made me focus a lot more on the final composition and how my image could be altered to display time,” senior Emily Hatheway said.Even though the assignment was completely new this year, it was so successful that Barsi plans to assign it again in future classes. “I plan on doing an adaptation of this assignment in the future,” Barsi said. “The project took a long time, but I think the students really enjoyed the process and being able to experiment with how to do this technique. I look forward to assigning this project again.”