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AP Studio Art Portfolio Student!
Home | Ceramics | Drawing | Photography
Billy
Stephens
Submitted portfolio in his Junior
year!
Written Commentary | View Portfolio | College Board (AP) criteria
The following pictures depict Billy Stephens getting ready to submit his portfolio. The College Art (AP) Association provides specific packaging and forms for all materials -- be sure to order your information early from the College Board!
Billy's entire AP portfolio is available online. Please read his written commentary. The commentary section is requirement of all studio art AP portfolios. Students interested in pursuing an AP program in studio art should especially consider the questions carefully. Students must also receive permission from Mr. Zimmer to embark on a formal AP track program.
The school is eager to support students interested in pursuing an AP studio art program -- thanks to Billy we now have a better understanding of scope and structure of the program.
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Briefly define your concentration.
Through my concentration I sought to reveal internal emotion through the apparently objective medium of Photography. I feel that the ultimate challenge in Photography is not in the technique but rather in its application. It is easy to snap to a picture and print it, but what I sought to show through my images was that a flat two-dimensional print can reveal much more than is represented by the literal black in white image.
Briefly describe the sources of your ideas and the evolution of your concentration. You may refer to specific slides as examples.
The biggest inspiration for this series has been the work of Annie Leibovitz. After going to an exhibit at the Corcoran Museum of Art last fall and studying some of her images, I came up with two basic principles for my concentration. The first principal was to compose the entire shot in the camera so that what I ultimately printed was what I saw. The second principal was to make sure that I really knew my subject and could therefore come up with the most honest and meaningful shot. I began this project by photographing my sister (slides 1-9), a person whom I already knew very well. Together we discussed each shot and how we would seek to reveal the unseen in each shot. In February 2000, I had the unique opportunity to travel to Nicaragua with Operation Smile (a nonprofit organization specializing in adolescent reconstructed facial surgery) in Nicaragua, I took what I had learned through my experience with my sister and applied it to individuals whom I had just recently met.
What medium or media did you use? For digital art in the General Portfolio, specify the program(s) and how you used them.
I chose photography because I think that if it is used carefully it can be the most honest and powerful art medium to convey a message. Every print that I created was full frame which is evident in the rough edges of the prints. I feel that these edges best illustrate the artistic process and help to show that the entire print was composed in the camera. Every print was done in the same scale and through the same process with the exception of the one solorized and one contact print. I believe that this uniformity helps to reinforce the existing coherence of the images.
Click here for direct access to the College Board criteria
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