Document
Introduction
At Dell Medical School students learn to become doctors. These photographs by Ann Hamilton are of people who have either received care or who have taken care of others. They look blurry because the artist hung a cloudy sheet of plastic in front of people before she took their photograph. She did this to help us focus on certain parts of the body, like a hand or a face.
Questions
What does the world look like through a foggy window?
How are these photos different from the ones we take?
Can you imagine what this person is thinking or feeling?
If Ann Hamilton took your photo, how would you pose?
Observations
Look at the portraits by Ann Hamilton. The parts of the people touching the plastic sheet are in focus, the rest of the picture is blurry.
Activity
Use a black marker to draw a large drawing on a white sheet of paper. Try to use the whole sheet. The more simple the drawing is the better!
Tear or cut different colored tissue paper into shapes. Using a paintbrush, cover your drawing with a thin layer of glue. Don’t worry, the black lines will show when the glue dries! Create
a collage by layering the tissue paper onto the glue. Layer colors to create new colors. The shapes don’t need to match the drawing. Just use them to ll the entire sheet with colors!
Look again
Look at your drawing and at Ann Hamilton’s photograph. Is your drawing blurry like the person in the photograph?
Vocabulary
Collage - A work of art made by gluing paper, string, or other objects onto a sheet of paper
Shape - A form like a circle, square, or triangle
Layer - Placing one shape on top of another