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Photos arranged along walls, this year’s photography exhibition started on Feb. 6 in Purnell Gallery. This year, the theme is “Seeing the Big Picture,” featuring photos shot by Upper School Photography students. The exhibition is named after the technique that many student photographers attempted for their project, the panorama shots. The reception will be held at 12 p.m. on Feb. 11 at the Purnell Gallery. Below are some photographers’ perspectives on their work.

Senior Grace D. I was in British Columbia over the summer and there were lots of amazing views. I’ve taken pictures there before, but I really wanted to experiment with panorama shots. This photo is of Kootenay Lake in British Columbia. My grandmother grew up there and currently has a lake house which we go and visit over the summer. That’s actually a view from a couple of lots that are for sale in the mountains.

Senior Grace L. I immediately fell in love with the personalities and facial expressions of every single child I met in Kenya, and I wanted to capture them through my photography so that even after I came back home, I could relive my time with these special children. This picture was shot at a primary school in Kenya. I went to Kenya for three weeks over the summer to spend time with a boy who goes to this school, and these are some pictures of his classmates. Every time I took out my camera, the children would sprint towards me, pose and then run away. It was so funny, and sometimes I couldn’t even move because of how many children were swarming me!

Junior Caroline I took a bunch of those pictures a while ago for another project, and we had to make a panorama, so I thought it would look cool if I combined them together in order to make junior Avery, the girl in the picture, look like she’s chasing something—something lost. While working on the photos, I had to cut out the “ghost” one and fill in the background. I then put her back in and increased the transparency of part of the picture. I also added some filters and lighting and shadows to make the picture look older.

Junior Vanessa I wanted to capture the building in an interesting way and show the different proportions of the squares. The angles and shapes created a nice 3D illusion. It was taken at a playground near my house. At the time, I did not really have a background story for the picture, but now that I think about it, when I was younger, I used to play there and back then the castle seemed so huge to me. It’s crazy how when you are younger, the world seems so huge.

-Cassie