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My wife, Stacey, is a high school English teacher at Singapore American School (SAS).  In September, Stacey's SAS colleague, Barbara Harvey -- who teaches Advanced Placement (AP) Art -- reached out to her network in search of original images that her high school students could use as a source of reference and inspiration as they began building and developing their AP Art portfolios.

Barbara explained that each student's AP Art portfolio is broken down into two sections: Breadth and Concentration. The Breadth module consists of work demonstrating a knowledge of various techniques and media and covering the Elements and Principles of Art, while the Concentration portion is an individually selected theme that the student is free to explore and experiment with more personally and in-depth.

"One of the greatest challenges for art students is finding original images," explains Barbara.  "They can conceivably use images from Creative Commons, however we have found that the same images often get used over and over again and water down the effect they have."

Thus, Barbara's request was simple: would I be willing to allow her AP Art students to use my photography as influence and reference for the personal Concentration portion of their AP Art portfolio?

SAS has been great to both Stacey and me over the years, and I am always happy to give back to the students and faculty whenever I can.  I contacted Barbara and offered my online portfolio to her students.  I had just two caveats if a student wished to use one of my photographs for their Concentration: 1) I asked that they send me a personal email seeking permission and 2) that they share with me a photograph of their finished artwork.

The response from Barbara's students has been fantastic.  I have received nearly a dozen very polite individual student requests, and already a handful of students have sent me photographs of their completed artwork.

I am extremely impressed with the student's personal artistic styles and creative interpretations of my photography, and I am very proud to feature here four of their submissions alongside my original images.

Clockwise from top left is Shane Soetaniman's "Smoke" (white charcoal on matteboard), Claudia Vesga's "Fabric in Motion" (watercolour on paper), Angeline Elopre's "Wheels" (pencil on paper) and Laken Sylvander's "Things That Come in Pairs" (pastel on matteboard).

I look forward to receiving, and sharing, more of Barbara's students' creative artwork soon.