S C H O O L P H OTO S JANE ELLIS LBIPP
Think school photos aren’t important… think again! Jane Ellis LBIPP has shaken up the traditional way of capturing school photographs. Her article explains how her approach to school pictures differs from the typical posed, rigid images that have become commonplace by replacing them with fun, natural, vibrant portraits of pupils.
M
ention school photos to me and I used to think of false grins or grumpy frowns and strange, pinned-back fringes (never seen before or since) on a white, grey or tacky blue background. A must-have ritual undertaken each year in schools across the country. Dreaded by most kids and an awkward inconvenience for teachers. As my army of family portrait supporters grew, so did the encouragement for me to take on school photos and provide something better than what they were currently receiving. “Our photos were awful...you could do so much better,” I have heard so many times. However, I enjoyed my creative portrait photography, I liked the naturalness of my outdoor photoshoots and didn’t want to jump onto the conveyor-belt process of shot after shot of same pose, next child.
However, I knew I could give everyone involved a much better experience and product. As an employee there was no time to focus on the shy girl or the cheeky boy who thought it all a great game to stick his tongue out until his allocated 30-second time slot was up. I was frustrated that I couldn’t have the flexibility to capture the shots that really showed these children’s personalities.
When a “part-time” position at a national school portrait company came along I decided to give it a shot (quite literally) . The experience didn’t change my views. Ridiculously tight schedules, rushing from one school to the next, following an exacting formula that could be followed by any non-photographer so that everything could be mass processed. Even one of the managers described it as a “sausage factory”…and “a numbers game.” As long as enough people bought the photos and of course they did…(it was the official school photo after-all)…every decent parent has to buy at least one, don’t they? Despite the constraints, my portraiture abilities shone through, and I achieved some fantastic sales returns for the company.
Images © Jane Ellis
Issue One / 2023 / the PHOTOGRAPHER 21
