Last Week !

All assignments and portfolios have been graded and returned with a comment sheet inside the portfolio. Grades will be submitted on line next week. Please try to pick up your final portfolios before May 19th.

Have a great summer!

Assignment #7 Studio Nude

The female nude – magical, erotic, aesthetic – has been modeled and painted since prehistory. Appearing rarely and awkwardly in the earliest art, she attained fulfillment and glory in ancient Greece. In their idealized treatment of the nude, The Greeks established a standard that only the asceticism of the Middle Ages ignored. The artists of the Renaissance and their successors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries revived the nude, and by the 1930’s she was again a conventional form. It was inevitable that she should become a favorite subject of photography. - Peter Lacey

Amy Schumer, by Annie Leibowitz 2015

Bring one print to class for critique on April 14, 2016

Model will be supplied during in class shoot on April 5, students may of course photograph a model of their own choosing.

Assignment #6 Studio portrait

Photography can be an additive practice as we have discussed in class, but no where is this more evident than the lighting studio. You begin with a black room, add a back ground, set lights, determine  camera angle and lastly choose a subject.

In this assignment you will enlist the help of a human subject, no younger than 14 years old and photograph them under controlled lighting conditions in the lighting studio. Pay attention to direction of main and fill lights and ratio between each source. In the studio, everything matters.

Richard Avedon

Artists to research are: Karsh, Avedon, Halsman, Leibovitz, Scavullo and Penn.

Assignment/critique March 24

Assignment #4 Environmental Portrait

“The subject must be thought of in terms of the 20th century, of houses he lives in and places he works, in terms of the kind of light the windows in these places let through and by which we see him every day.”

Arnold Newman

                                       "Willie The Lion Smith"  by Arnold Newman 1960

 Simply put, an environmental portrait is a portrait of a person that includes enough of the environment around that person to provide context that helps the viewer understand more about the defining characteristics of the subject.  One of the keys to a successful environmental portrait is that the portion of the scene included in the frame should be "representative" of the environment or context you want the viewer to associate with the subject.  The relative importance of the subject to the environment is also important in defining an "environmental portrait."  The subject should be the most prominent element in the scene, with the surrounding elements providing strong supporting context.  If you are too close to your subject to include enough of the environment, then the image simply becomes a normal portrait.  On the other hand, if the subject is so small in the frame that other elements become more prominent, or viewers cannot discern the defining characteristics of the subject, then the image would be better classified as something other than an environmental portrait.

"Baker" August Sander

Shoot a minimum of 50 images/frames. You can shoot this assignment at a number of locations and even on different days. The subject must be part of the process and may include others, no candid photos of random people you have not met however! No animals or no humans under the age of 14 year as primary subject matter.

Submit one print, any size for in class critique on March 8

Assignment #3 Street Photography

“You must milk the cow a great deal, to get enough milk, to make a little bit of cheese”

Henri Cartier-Bresson

There come certain moments in our lives when any number of forces (both those we can control and those we can’t) merge together.  Everything comes together as if fate had planned it that way.  To simplify this in a phrase; being in the right place at the right time.

The French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson describes this sensation in his work as being “The Decisive Moment”.  A point in time and space when those forces (people, buildings, autos, animals, shapes, forms, weather etc.) arrange themselves in front of his camera to present a complete statement, both visually and emotionally.  Everything is revealed with perfect clarity.

But this is a very quick and fleeting moment.  The power created by all these forces dissolves as quickly as it arises.  Cartier-Bresson sees it as his responsibility as a photographer to be aware of such moments and to photograph them at precisely “the decisive moment”.

Your assignment, shoot at least two rolls of 36 exposure of these decisive moments you find in your world.  These are best found outdoors and in situations where there are lots of people around.  Use ISO 400 speed setting and try to use higher shutter speeds if your subjects are moving, around 250-500 of a second.

Carry your camera in the ready mode, that is pre-focused and the exposure controls adjusted for the lighting situation you are in.  Try concentrating on the three basic elements (time, space, and objects in space, like people).  Observe their interaction.  You skill will increase with practice and timing is everything.

Turn in a minimum of one print that best presents the idea of the decisive moment. The print may be of any size.

For more information, check out the works of Cartier-Bresson in the art and architecture library and the works of Elliot Erwitt and Gray Winnogrand two other photographers who deal with these elements.

Gary Winogrand

Critique for this assignment is Feb 25, bring a minimum of one print to class.

Assignment #2 Photograms

Man Ray made his "rayographs" without a camera by placing objects-such as the thumbtacks, coil of wire, and other circular forms used here-directly on a sheet of photosensitized paper and exposing it to light. Man Ray had photographed everyday objects before, but these unique, visionary images immediately put the photographer on par with the avant-garde painters of the day. Hovering between the abstract and the representational, the rayographs revealed a new way of seeing that delighted the Dadaist poets who championed his work, and that pointed the way to the dreamlike visions of the Surrealist writers and painters who followed. 

Today, we generally call these types of images, "photograms".

In this assignment you will bring three objects to class, a transparent, a translucent and an opaque one, all sized to fit on a piece of 8x10 paper. Due FEB 11

Assignment #1 the black & White Image

Black & White photography is different from color photography from both an obvious visual approach but also from a more conceptual understanding. With the exception of a few who are color blind, we all see and understand the world in color. To make black & white images requires that you make the translation in your head as your shooting.

For this assignment shoot one roll of 36 exposure HP-5 or similar film with the goal of making images where it matters that the image is mono toned and not in color. As part of this assignment, you should bracket all your images, one stop over, one exposed what you believe to be the correct exposure and one stop under exposed.

Bring the exposed film to class for in class processing January 20.

Critique for this assignment is FEB 2, bring contact sheet and one print to class.