Urbanautica: a special interview with Dutch documentary photographer Raimond Wouda
September 7, 2011 by Manfrotto
Filed under Interviews
The words and images proposed this week by Urbanautica for Manfrotto School of Xcellence, are taken from the special interview with Dutch documentary photographer Raimond Wouda, on his series ‘School’.
«Well my previous studio was in front of a secondary school, so every time I got into my studio I was seeing the fascinating world of students in between 12 and 18 years old, and it reminded me of my own youth. At the same time I was fascinated by the behavior of these students. How they were dealing with each other. I realized that it could be an interesting subject for a photography project. Later when I was doing research I found out that there was not a lot of photographic-work made on secondary schools and there were not a lot of art projects dealing with the subject as well.»
«The thing that fascinates me about the secondary school is the fact that is a closed world. I call it a micro-cosmos. The students are going there 5 to 6 days a week, they see the same people everyday, and the physical barrier is the fact that there is a fence that surrounds the schoolyard. In the development of a juvenile the secondary school plays a very important role because it’s the place were you will become aware of your identity. So in a way secondary school plays a major role on how people are formed, on how they develop as a person. In the environment of the secondary school the relationship with the other also plays an important role in the shaping of your identity. It’s always about who am I and how am I dealing with the others. In which group or subculture I belong? Who are my friends? How do they look like? What kind of music do they listen to? What books do they read? All this question that you are going to ask yourself for the first time are related to the context of the secondary school.»
«In general, we can say that the secondary school is very meaningful; because it plays a major role in the consciousness of a person that his or her life is about me and the group. That’s why it was very important to show the individuals in the group, sometimes a bit more and sometimes a bit less. I am always showing groups, but at the same time if you look properly you can see the individuals as well. In a way it is about both.»
