The Classroom Portrait

This project would not have been possible without the collaboration, enthusiasm, and friendship of photographer,

There are few moments when as adults we pause to acknowledge the accelerated change that occur in the lives of children. Whether slight or dramatic, the physical and emotional metamorphosis from child to adult is often missed. As sudden as this transformation may seem to the outside world, to the teacher these changes are slow, sometimes graceful, often awkward, impossible to stop and difficult to spot. It is the essence of that change in children that creates the momentum that keeps the classroom—and the world—evolving.

For the academic year of 2009/2010, each month, at the same time of day, at the same place in the classroom, in the same order, I took a portrait of each student in my 5^th grade class, seeking to photographically document the changes that I observed over the course of the 10-month school year.

These portraits are presented as one image wherein the viewer, including the children themselves, can follow the grid of portraits from left to right and observe the change.

Thank you to the parents of the students for their willing participation and support.