Explore new ways that go beyond photographing every-day life to delve into your family’s personal stories. These different methods of storytelling can include staging imaginary scenes with family members as models, or working with transforming archival photos. We’ll experiment with using collage, assemblage, and manipulation of images — physically cutting up prints or attaching hand-crafted artifacts (lace, stickers, objects from the past or present) — as a reaction to the pictures. Students will learn to create a structure for working on their project — from developing an idea, research, making a storyboard, and editing, to creating the final presentation. Work by contemporary artists and photographers on family topics will be presented and discussed.

In her artwork, Pustaiová explores role-playing as an element that helps inform the way family members, relatives, and friends relate to one another. With a sense of humor and irony, she uncovers the less obvious stories that exist within a family.

Open to students working with any kind of camera (analog, digital, instant) and any types of prints, and whether their family members are nearby or not.