Photo II teacher Martha Ortman said students are working on their final project which reflects their thought on society.]

“Photo II, we did a social commentary assignment where they had to pick something that they wanted to comment on about society,” Ortman said. “It has to do with race, religion, how people are judgmental based on what your looks are and how people judge people without knowing them.”

When Ortman created the final project for her photo II class, she did so with creativity and diversity in mind.

“Their final project is to create a piece of art depicting a specific culture. We have all belong to at least one culture,” Ortman said. “So they could be a specific religion, race, ethnicity, gender

identity, sport or field of study.”

Ortman said the final project also provides education about culture and will open up discussions.

“They are going to present it to the class on the last two days of the semester, which will be educational for people who don’t belong to that culture, because they will need to be prepared to discuss it,” Ortman said.

Senior photo II student Sofia Roloff said the project allows her to share her culture to her classmates through creativity.

“I think it’s a creative, hands-on and (a) cool way for us to show each other where we come from,” Roloff said.

Roloff said the first-hand nature of the project makes the accounts more compelling.

“We could learn a lot about just like seeing a culture through someone else’s eyes, since it’s from their perspective not just like research on the internet,” Roloff said. “It’s what they know from their experiences so it’s cool for us to see that through their eyes.”

Ortman said that while sharing, it is important that` students keep in mind that these identities are individual, and not necessarily representative the entire culture.

“Everyone expresses their own culture differently, so just because they’re expressing their view of the culture, doesn’t mean that they are the spokesperson for everyone in that culture,” Ortman said. “It’s their personal truth of the culture they are a part of.”

On top of providing cultural education, Ortman said the project also gives students a chance to have their art critiqued.

“It’s sort of like an art critique. In the art world, you are going to have your artwork picked apart,” Ortman said. “Critique isn’t always a negative thing, it’s picking apart a piece of art, not just looking at the bad.”

According to Ortman, following the final, the projects will be displayed in the C2 hallway after finals are over.