Aimhigher - Who do you think you are?

St John Fisher Catholic High School, Wigan

Year 7 and Year 8 students worked with the digital artist Colin Halsall to explore the concept of past and present in order to begin to think beyond school and to imagine their futures. Following the idea of the recent BBC TV programme, they were asked to assemble a variety of family photographs, inspired by the photomontage work of the British photographer, Deborah Baker.

Students quickly became skilled using Photoshop software. They selected from their personal collections, combining images of their hometown of Wigan, both past and present, with future landscapes that they might find themselves in. They were asked to consider how wide their horizons are, their dreams and aspirations. The panoramic image is symbolic of a wide immense landscape, presenting a wealth of directions to follow.

The resulting images are beautiful in themselves, but in order to reinforce the sense of aiming higher, the works have been assembled into a joint piece that connects all the panoramas together. Some images have also been printed onto acetate sheets, and laid onto a grid structure, with the idea of being lit from within, communicating the sense of illumination and well being that achievement can bring.