"What do I want to capture most in my photographs? Human emotion and
the essence of human being."
-Philippe Halsman

FLOAT! is the second challenge from The Student Creative, a collaboration
of art teachers and students from around the world. This collaboration
began last year with Paint the World with Light, a project which
challenged students to use long exposure photography with flashlights
and any other light-emitting tool they could find to reveal something
about their community. 

Similar to Paint the World with Light, the idea for FLOAT! came out of
similar lessons that were happening simultaneously in Shanghai and
California. In California, students were learning about creating a
sense of space around the figure using various Photoshop techniques in a
project called "Float, Fly, Fall".  In Shanghai, students were learning
about shutter speed and high speed photography in a lesson called
"Jump!". This lesson was in turn inspired by the work of Philippe
Halsman. As a portrait photographer, Halsman would ask his subjects to
jump after their sessions with him for a final photograph. 

For FLOAT! we took our inspiration from Halsman's incredible mid-air
portraits and the sense of magical realism that they created. This was
the challenge we offered to the students: to create a moment of magical
realism using high speed photography.

100% of the profit from this book goes towards the Jacaranda School in
Malawi. Learn more about the Jacaranda Foundation at: www.jacarandafoundation.org

We hope you enjoy the responses to the challenge contained within this
book, and hope that it inspires you to find some time in your busy life
to just… f l o a t .

David Gran, Shanghai American School @
http://carrotrevolution.blogspot.com
Mike Skocko, Valhalla High School @ http://maclab.guhsd.net/blog
Matt Cauthron, Digital Arts Technology Academy @
http://data-di.blogspot.com

Learn more about The Student Creative, Float, and our other challenges
at: http://studentcreative.spruz.com/