You couldn’t miss him because while all regular tourists were taking photos of each other using point and shoot or DLSR cameras, he lugged a heavy Omega film camera and you could immediately see that he was no ordinary photographer as he deftly captured the ordinary market scenes on film.
For the past several years, Dr. Dirk Spennemann has been visiting the CNMI all the way from Australia, going around taking photos of people, places and everything.
This year is different not only for Spennemann who, for the first time, offered a workshop in photography to 23 high school students as part of the NMI Council for the Humanities sponsored community photography project.
Three of the students were from Rota, four from Tinian and the rest were from high schools on Saipan.
Spennemann said the students were nominated by their principals to the Humanities Council.
“The workshop focused on community photography where the participants can visually document and show to others what they think the essence of their community is,” he said.
Spennemann introduced the concept of community photography to the participants during the workshop and taught them about the photographic principles of composition, lighting, camera management, and digital data management.
He also taught the students basic skills in post-processing their images and digital darkroom work.
Spennemann stressed that photography starts in the mind.
“A good photo starts in the mind, and the camera is just the instrument that helps you convey the image you saw in your mind into a photograph,” he said.
“I’m excited to see how the students applied what they learned and what they came up with in the different categories, but they show a lot of promise,” he said.
The deadline for submission of the photo entries is tonight, but Spennemann said that he has been intrigued by the images he had seen so far from the students.
The photo categories are:
• Self-portrait or how the participants see themselves,
• Self image (one image that represents who the participant is but does not show him)
• Family (one image that represents the student’s family but does not show the faces of family members)
• Village/Community (one image that represents and describes the student’s village to others — what is it that makes my village special to me?
• Island — one image that represents and describes the participant’s island. (What is it that makes my island special to me?
• The CNMI — one image that in my view represents and describes the CNMI to others. What is it that makes the CNMI special to me?
• Future — one image that in my view represents the future of the CNMI. Where are we going?
• Art — digitally manipulating one of the images taken from the above categories into a piece digital art.
All submissions will be showcased on the project Web site http://myplacecnmi.org but the winning entries will be shown in an exhibition at the CNMI Museum for History and Culture which opens at 6 p.m. on March 3.
The workshop is funded in part by a “We the people” grant provided by the National Endowment of the Humanities.
Spennemann, a professor in cultural heritage studies at Charles Sturt University (Albury, Australia) is also a photographic artist with several completed exhibitions and more and scheduled in various museums and galleries in Australia, the CNMI and Alaska.
He has a long-standing connection with the CNMI, regularly teaching aspects of the Teachers Institute.
“I love coming to the CNMI each year,” he said. He will be back here in October. To see more of Spennemann’s works, visit http://www.ausphoto.net.
