"How About a Picture of the Kids at Mass?"
“We need to show we are a Catholic school. How about a picture of the kids at Mass?”
In 2019, I did a diocesan wide project for the schools operated by the Diocese of Knoxville where I went and shot images that the schools could be used for marketing.
Before lifting the camera, however, I visited each school and spoke with the principals. I did this to find out, what makes your school unique, what makes a parent look at your website or brochure and think, “There. I want to send my child there?”
A shared answer across the board, of course, was to demonstrate the fact that the school is a Catholic one, that it holds to Catholic traditions and teachings. When I would say, “Okay, let’s think about how that can be shown in pictures . . .” I would almost always hear, “How about a picture of the kids at Mass?”
Now, I see nothing wrong with children attending Mass. Of course they are going to attend Mass. And people in a church with a priest at the altar does readily identify as being Catholic.
But why were these pictures being taken? In my experience as a photographer, one thing I strive to be is a mindful photographer. Just as words have meaning, pictures should have a reason. Why was it taken? For what purpose? And, if you know the purpose, was that communicated to the viewer? Let us go a step further - we need to not only ensure the message was received by the person seeing the picture, but first that they even noticed the picture and “leaned in” to look at it. It had to grab - and hold - their attention.
If I show you a picture of Mass being celebrated in a standard Catholic church, does it excite you? Compare that with, say, a papal Mass being held in St. Peter’s in Rome. The latter picture may grab your attention for the beauty of the surroundings, or if it is framed to show just the Pope at the altar to give a sense of its immense size, or maybe it is a pullback (wide angle) shot to demonstrate the enormous crowd attending the Mass. In those three scenarios, the picture is framed for a purpose and has a visual impact that makes a person want to look at the picture.
That is harder with the average church and harder still with children. I know from experience that a lot of schools tend to put the younger grades up front. Have you seen kindergartners and first graders seated for any length of time? Half are fidgeting, some have blank bored looks, and some are even napping. I do not say this to disparage the kids - they are young children and of course that will be their expressions and positions. I cannot disrupt the liturgy with flash, so I have to make use of existing light sources - which tend to be up front by the altar where those wee’uns are sitting. Furthermore, if I do a wide shot, what I get is a sea of children’s faces and frankly, that is a boring picture. I am not saying the priest is boring, or the Mass does not have meaning, but for the purpose of marketing such an image I can predict will be quickly scanned by a viewer’s eyes and forgotten.
And, quite frankly, it is a boring picture.
So, how to show the Catholic identity of a school? What I did was to make sure it was “found” in pictures of children in action. Here are three examples.
Example 1: the Buddy System
In one school, the kindergarten students get a “buddy” from the 8th grade to help them during school Masses. The 8th grader helps to keep their attention, shows them how the older student is following along in a hymnal or missal (that is the book used during liturgies), and sometimes just gives them a hug because younger children like to feel secure. Doing this at an actual Mass would be hard, as well as the general rule that flash cannot be used during a liturgy, so we staged some scenes with kindergartners and their “buddies.”
Example 2: Using Archetypes
If you see a religious sister in her habit and veil, or a priest in a traditional cassock, plenty of movies, television shows, and advertising immediately tell you that’s Catholic.. What that is is an archetype, something that is a very typical example of a specific person or thing. People can easily recognize it and in our largely secular world, there will be viewers who linger a little longer on a picture out of interest for something not seen so commonly.
Example 3: Catholic Symbolism
All Catholics are Christian but not all Christians are Catholics. As such, there are symbols and images that are familiar to those practicing the faith - and wanting their children to be as well. Notably, Catholics have a devotion to the Virgin Mary and for many Catholics warm feelings are associated with mages of her. Likewise, Catholics more often than not will have a Crucifix with the figure of Jesus on display instead of a simple cross. Both of these can appear subtly in images.
I think sometimes my clients get confused when they want to book a photography session and I say, “No, let’s meet first.” The reason is simple: if I know what is in your head I can translate it more easily through my lens. In fact, sometimes a client may be inspired by a suggestion that makes their session all the more productive, as it did with the principals’ of these schools. Even something as simple as a first birthday or an engagement session can benefit from taking the time to sit and talk.
And if a kindergartner needs a wee nap during Mass … shhhh. They’re just a little kid, let them catch a few winks.