MARFA — This semester Marfa ISD junior high and high school art students were introduced to a variety of photography techniques through a partnership with The Chinati Foundation that culminated in an exhibition titled Marfa Moments at the Marfa Public Library last Friday.
The library’s community room played host to the one-night-only display, which celebrated bold student perspectives through black and white darkroom prints, Polaroids, cyanotypes, photograms, pinhole photography and double exposures. Prints were for sale with proceeds going directly to the student artists.
Art teacher Adele Powers said she and Michael Roch, then-Director of Education at The Chinati Foundation, who has since departed the role, decided to make this year’s collaboration about photography in order to coincide with the museum’s ongoing exhibition Al río / To the River by artist Zeo Leonard.
Chinati staffers worked to establish a working darkroom on Marfa ISD’s campus, with the help of supply donations from Harry Crofton. Some students traded their iPhones and digital cameras for 35 millimeter film cameras, gaining familiarity with manual camera adjustments and the patience required to shoot an entire roll of film before seeing the results.
“The kids who learned 35mm, they learned how to read a light meter and all this stuff,” Powers said. “The excitement of taking a photo and not knowing what it is was really funny.”
The anticipation that built from utilizing the analog technology was exciting for students, who got to see their images suddenly appear in the darkroom through chemical processes. “I think the darkroom is super cool, and it’s really magical for the students because it appears before your very eyes when you put it in the developer,” Powers said.
Two juniors that really took to shooting film and spending time printing in the darkroom were Isaiah Ramos and Messiah Licon. The two said they plan to continue their newfound photography practices, including darkroom printing, next school year.
“Doing photography, it was definitely something new to jump into, but after taking some time [learning] how to handle the equipment and how to work the settings on the camera it was pretty fun,” Ramos said. “I got to go around town, take a lot of photos, even out of town. I took a lot of photos of a lot of eye-catching things.”
“This was a really fun thing to do in art class, and it was very different from what we’ve done in the past,” Licon added. “Just learning how to develop these was really fun and interesting.”
Ramos said they “went through a lot of film, a lot of trial and error” to produce prints they were happy with that appeared in the show. He said he was drawn to shooting “things you’re not able to see everyday,” while Licon said she was drawn to photographing Marfa scenes as well as the natural beauty of Texas, which students recently encountered while traveling through San Saba on their way to the state science fair in College Station.
Junior Ayven Pippen said he was surprised by how gratifying it was to shoot film and make darkroom prints. He said he was moved to snap a photo of a seemingly mundane scene of a urinal in a boys bathroom at the school — which turned out to be a fan favorite — because “it’s like an everyday item that not a lot of people see.”
“I wanted to take the photo because it’s something more women don’t get to see,” Pippen said. “It’s something private that should be seen.”
Chinati Education Coordinator Haley Levin said she enjoyed interacting with the Shorthorns through the unique collaboration between Chinati and Marfa ISD. “This is such a special partnership made possible by the creativity and willingness of the staff and students at Marfa ISD,” Levin said. “I smile every time I walk down the hall towards the art classroom — behind the door is a very special community. The students really lead the way.”