Classrooms around the world

[asakiyume]

The British Journal of Photography has a post featuring classrooms around the world, taken by Julian Germain.

I found them so attractive and thought provoking that I went to his page for the classroom project, which includes photos not included in that article. The international photos start around image 9.

They conveyed a lot not just in what each photo contained or lacked (though my eye was drawn to the stamp "donated by Ogean Energy" on a desk in a captionless photo--donors always having to get their due), but in their side-by-side contrasts. An all-black classroom in St. Louis, followed by an all-white classroom, also in St. Louis:





A class in Peru where everyone is in uniform, followed by another Peruvian classroom where the kids are in ordinary dress:





And, of course, classrooms of all boys or all girls.

Germain says,

We are responsible for the world they’re growing up in ... Despite being absent from the images, adults permeate every corner of every image. I like to think the work is confrontational; hundreds and hundreds of children and young people looking back at us with such intensity. I find that challenging.

Comments

[zyzyly]

those are powerful images. I need to spend more time with his project.

[asakiyume]

I found doing so very rewarding--I hadn't planned on writing this, but the more I looked, the more I saw and the more I wanted to tell someone.

[amaebi]

I am afraid that adults tend to operate more often in terms of Filing Children Away, than of being responsible to them....

And omg, corporate donor culture. I may write about that.

[asakiyume]

I've been lucky in my experiences with teachers (not surprising, I guess: I'm a member of a societally lucky group), but I know they and other people involved with kids can do exactly as you say, and once kids are in a file folder, it's hard for them to jump categories.

I'll be interested in what you have to say about corporate donor culture!

[amaebi]

You know, I was actually thinking more of parenting than of schools and teaching. And on that, I know that as a parent you operate primarily collegially, with the mutual responsibility that requires. There are other ways of parenting, so far as I can tell some of them equally productive-- but that's mine, and I like how it's worked and is working.

[ex_cafenowhere544]

Is it just me, or does that white St. Louis classroom radiate hostility in a way none of the others (that you shared here) does? I mean, the classroom of black students has some students that are posturing defiance or disregard, but they're engaging, whereas the white students are...closed off? shut down?

The two Peruvian classrooms are fascinating in their differences.

[asakiyume]

Yeah, I felt that too, like they're suspicious of the photographer. Makes me wonder why! To them so much has been given; why so hostile?

And I agree with you about the Peruvian ones!

[ex_cafenowhere544]

Okay, now that I've been to the artist's site, I see a few other surly classrooms (like in Cuba), but none with quite the level of blank animosity I feel from the St. Louis class. I wonder if the photographer tried to crack a joke or something and it soured the students. Almost as fascinating as the pictures are the stories we tell to "explain" them. :)

It just now dawned on me that the first Peruvian classroom must be a boys' academy, whereas the second is a mixed-gender class. What first struck me was the inversion of color: the boys' uniforms are khaki but the classroom itself has colors going for it; the rural (I assume) classroom is bland but the kids' clothes are vibrant, as are their faces.

It worries me that so many classrooms look packed like canned biscuits. On the other hand, I was delighted to see a class corgi among the kindergarten artists. :D

[asakiyume]

Yeah, I was going to reference the Cuban classroom, but then it seemed to me I was being influenced largely by that one girl, plus the caption, which referenced a screening for a film, made me wonder--like you're saying--about the factors that may have influenced their mood.

In the article in the British Journal of Photography, they mention four students to a desk in Nigeria--which means the uncaptioned photo I mentioned (with the donating company's name stamped on the desk) is likely Nigeria--it's got four to a desk.

Which classroom had a class corgi? I have to go back and look! I liked the Taiwanese kindergarten kids' bright smocks.

[asakiyume]

About the white St. Louis classroom, another thing that struck me was how few kids were there... which made me wonder if this was a detention study hall or something. Like you said, the stories we tell to explain what we see...

[ex_cafenowhere544]

Yes! I'd be pretty surly too if I were being photographed in detention!

The corgi was in that Taiwanese classroom with the red-smocked kids. The architecture there was interesting too, looked like the building was a circle around a courtyard.

[asakiyume]

LOL, I was focused on the outfits and missed the dog!

[conuly]

My thought was maybe it's an extremely high-level class - like advanced microbiology or post-ap Japanese.

[asakiyume]

That's possible too.