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Arts & Communication Photography and museums for senior students

Figure 6. Image that becomes an assembly between objects and ancient Figure 7. Image taken during session 4 “Privacy”, in the garden of the
photograph, created by Miquel Valls Marco taking advantage of the Benlliure Museum. Author: Maite Rabena Pérez.
gloomy lighting of the Museu de Prehistòria de València.
According to Alessandro Luigini, the ability to use
greater depth in some of the aspects that each person who graphic skills, and in general the ability to integrate the use
intervenes wants to stand out above others. By analyzing of the visual, the mind and the hand (perception, thought,
the results of the focused groups, several issues can be representation) to solve problems and create effective
determined in relation to the comments from the sessions products, facilitates the acquisition of new knowledge
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for viewing the photographs, reinforcing the conclusions (Luigini, 2020: 89). The Italian author also reminds us,
of the research process. The impact caused by the images referring to the advice of Edgar Morin, his definition of art
themselves affects the analysis prepared by the participants as the human capacity to create works, shapes, colors, and
in the discussion groups, since these are photographs taken sounds give or should offer esthetic emotions. For Edgar
by the group of students, allowing them to deepen and Morin, esthetic emotion is the mirror of creative emotion.
learn about issues related to the history of photography, the The artist, to create, appeals to unconscious (inspiration)
characters that generated it, and their own involvement in and conscious (corrections) forces. In the same way, the
the process. esthetic emotion that seizes us in front of a work is both
The great diversity of the museums visited also makes rational and irrational, since it appeals to both feeling and
it possible to understand the potential of these institutions, intelligence. And is this esthetic emotion useful? Echoing
since beyond their collections, their architecture, or the Aristotle’s poetic catharsis, the author demonstrates how,
distinction that may emanate from the image they offer, in these times of crisis that we are going through, beauty
what matters in this case is that the senior students enjoy, is a formidable antidote against fear, horror, anguish, and
learn, and above all create, practicing an exercise in artistic death. 37
production that empowers them as inspired designers. Based on the debates in the classroom, and the answers

A case that we consider interesting to highlight is the to questionnaires, a synthesis of the results of the analysis
visit to the Benlliure House Museum, because it is the of the work sessions has been prepared, systematizing the
place where the brothers Mariano and José, sculptor and issues based on the theme. Some issues prevail in their
painter, respectively, lived and worked. These artists are observations, and therefore in their learning, which helps
an important benchmark of Valencian art, but the most us understand how interests are involved in the making
attractive thing about visiting this house-museum is that it of one type of image or another (Figure 8). This revealed
is a space that preserves the workshop where José Benlliure several realities. First, how the images themselves built a
painted. Walking through the artist’s studio means having series of meanings, with narratives that were implicit in the
within reach both the large window (facing north) through photographs on a recurring basis. This remarkable facet
which light entered the workshop, as well as numerous allows us to make generalizations and reach consensus
materials that the artist used to paint, highlighting elements based on the experience arising from the images themselves
of costumes and props with which he dressed their models. and not only through the institutional discourse in which
It is also worthwhile as a space to photograph the cemetery, we usually engage, thereby reinforcing our perspective and
a place where memory is very present (Figure 7). our conviction about certain social, cultural situations,

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2024) 7 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1740