A collection of school photos from around the world by Julian Germain

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

What do you have left in memory of the past school years? Of course, a couple of old diaries and notebooks, carefully folded somewhere in the attic, and also an album of photographs taken in different years, either on the porch of the alma mater, or at a desk or at the blackboard. But at British photographer Julian Germain for several years, a whole collection of photographs has accumulated, in which schoolchildren from all over the world.

Germain began "researching" the lives of modern schoolchildren in 2004, filming the first shots in nearby schools in the north-east of England. Seeing how different the classes are from each other, the photographer decided to continue his photo trip to other countries. He managed to visit not only nearby European countries, but also get to America, as well as see Asian and African schools.

The main difference between Julian Germain's pictures is that he tries to take them during the lesson so as not to disturb the atmosphere prevailing in the classroom. As a rule, the students sit in their places, the photographer transplants only a few so that everyone is in the frame. As a rule, Germain takes pictures from the place where the teacher is standing, the camera is positioned at the level of the students in order to avoid the haughty "look" from top to bottom.

In memory of the meeting with the students, Germain has not only photographs, but also questionnaires, which the children are happy to fill out. Thanks to small polls, the Briton manages to learn a lot about children: their hobbies, musical preferences, hobbies and daily routine.

Julian Germain's photographs about school life are popular in many exhibition halls around the world, including Photographers' Gallery (London), Baltic Center for Contemporary Art (Gateshead), Parco Gallery (Tokyo), MASP (Sao Paulo) and others. By the way, interest in the everyday life of schoolchildren manifested itself in another photo project with the self-explanatory name School Lunch, which we wrote about earlier on our website Culturology. RU. This selection of photographs is dedicated to what schoolchildren around the world eat.