The purpose of this minor is for the students to have a visual or conceptual theme for the final portfolio and to consider this their project for this minor.
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FA ARCIVE GALLERIES |
“Photography is both extremely difficult and extremely easy!
To set a lens opening, to press a button,-these are technical operations
and can be learned. But to capture a mood or inner spirit demands
a creative insight and a searching eye.” ~ Edward Steichen
Course
Outline Download :: FA 7th Semester Gallery :: Reference Links ::.
An open letter to the young students I am to teach over the next few weeks
Dear all, This semester’s minor will be spent in molding and scolding and getting you to become the finest photographers you can be... and if possible, of a higher standard than anyone ever expected of you. Over the years as a professional photographer I have never come across any written material that defines what this profession may mean to some of us. So, today I will try to share a collection of thoughts drawn together over time, which may help you along this seven week journey taken together.
Photography is a path, a sequence of events to be lived and experienced that helps you discover yourself and the people and places in your near and distant environments. It is not a fixed state of mind or being but an evolving medium, to take the edge off the weight some of can feel in conveying our feelings, beliefs and desires. In short not all of us are verbal enough in putting into words any intense visual rush witnessed... Strangely, in such moments of flight high or low speech takes the backseat, leaving us silent. Hence opening the door to the next chapter, which begins by saying, “I don’t want to be left unheard, I need to share these endless waves of wakefulness...”
We are most satisfied in expressing ourselves when we photograph subjects that give us a spiritual or emotional rush. There is no traditional way of perceiving a subject, only diverse ways it may be experienced. What is essential is how the subject looks and feels to you, as you hope to capture and share this visual rush with the rest of the world. Ah! But in all honesty as you seek to do these magical moments justice, you realize this endeavor will last a lifetime. And the quest for more is far from ever being concluded.
So! Pick up this third eye and use it till your heart’s content—use this silent, outspoken, beautiful monochromatic, mechanical, time-freeze, blink of an eye, depth of field, apertures, shutter speeds, bulb, slow sync, and pain in the neck thing we call a CAMERA ~ Farah Mahbub
The Visual Journal ::.
Students must maintain this journal as part of their creative process. This will become a personal indication of your own photographic ‘escape’. The Visual Journal should contain:
::. A collection of ideas and inspirations
::. Documentation of your research into processes and content
::. Reviews, critiques, quotes, clippings, tear sheets.
::. An information sheet for each and folio assignment
::. Technical requirements and equipment used
The Final Personal Portfolio Project ::. A Singularly Audible Voice
The purpose of this minor is for the students to have a visual or conceptual theme for the final portfolio and to consider this their project for this minor.
Focus ::. If you had a platform from which to speak and show, what would you choose to communicate?
Hypothesize with us: A gallery for young emerging artists invites you to hold a solo exhibition, your first ever. In order to ascertain whether your work is of the desired standard, the organizers must be convinced of your eligibility over the several other candidates. Conceptualize a theme for your set of 20 images; give image samples when and if possible. As with most other commissioned pieces of work, you will work in consultation with your patrons ( Ahem ! Teacher ). A concept must be worked out through several meetings, presented in written form and realized over the next few weeks. This will go into the exhibition catalogue (website).
The concept cannot be rewritten after you create your art; the intention is to discipline oneself to see a concept through, and challenge you to successfully fulfil your intentions. However, there will be room for modification up till the third week, if necessary. Also, it will only be accepted if you have been regularly meeting up with us. Create a fresh set of twenty (20) images to communicate your concept, using any of the techniques learned in the past semesters; there can be any number of series within these.
After the exhibition is over, your work is to be submitted in a durable portfolio case along with a CD containing high-quality tiff files of the images. The overall quality of the execution and presentation of the work will have a considerable impact on the outcome of the grade.
Timeline ::.
Week One
- Organize exhibition of previous minor’s work
- View and discuss a range of photographs and videos
- Discuss concepts
Week Two
- Put up exhibition
- Begin new photography
- Day Three submit concept in writing
Week Three to Six
- Introduction to digital techniques
- Shooting time continued. Do not assume this is enough time to laze around in! There will be many re-shoots…
Week Seven
- Production time; all lab prints must be digitally corrected by you. You will have access to the darkroom, but not the studio.
Final Submission ::. Twenty images. Your work must be displayed in the exhibition hall.
Guidelines for the Final Portfolio ::.
The concept’s theme may be an extension of a direction you began with one or two images in an earlier assignment in the pervious semesters or it may explore an idea in another subject matter. You will spend the final 5-6 weeks of the course shooting, processing, printing and matting the final work. Create a professionally presented portfolio with well-printed photographs and neatly executed presentation. All photographs must be appropriately spotted. The photographs should work together as a group and should show evidence of your own personal style. These will be due the Monday after your block ends. Before you begin to put a portfolio together, ask yourself these questions: Does my portfolio look like the work of one photographer, is this a cohesive portfolio? How can I best sequence my images? What format is best for my ‘look’? Catalogue or list all of your images of portfolio quality. Chromes (slides) must be printed to a larger size.
All assignments will be systematically critiqued on both technical and aesthetic grounds with students encouraged to push their abilities to the limit. Effective composition is stressed throughout the course as well as technical considerations, and the students are strongly encouraged to explore creatively and technically with the full support and involvement of the instructor. Students are also encouraged to discuss their ideas for the class assignments amongst themselves, not just with the instructors, in order to learn independent problem-solving techniques.
http://www.stanislavginzburg.com/index.html ::. My photographs depict an imaginary place where most human relationships and connections cease to exist. A state of mind where daydreams, memories, flashbacks, and films replace the real-time emotions, encounters, and lovers. Here, nothing seems important enough despite a burning desire to feel the opposite. In the middle of this place I am left with longing for something sincere.
www.michaelkenna.net ::. Michael Kenna has been photographing the landscape for more than twenty-five years, returning time and again to the gardens and cities of Europe capturing the ethereal light and silence of the early morning. Although Kenna never photographs people within the land, he has the uncanny ability to give manicured trees, stoic fountains and heroic statues a meditative human presence. This can be seen in the silhouetted trees covered with snow in Peterhof, Russia, haunted by the presence of Cossacks; in the curves created by the towers in Mont St. Michel, resembling the outline of two monks in prayer.
Whether photographing the still white coldness of a Russian winter or the sculptured elegance of Versailles, Michael Kenna infuses his work with a solitary sense of place, capturing the moments between action. Kenna gives us a view of beauty in the landscape a sense of timelessness in our contemporary world.
http://rodneysmith.com ::. "People use the terminology 'He's a commercial photographer, he's a fine art photographer, he's a landscape photographer.' I think it's hard enough just to be a photographer. I think that in using the term 'photographer' one should be very careful about what that really means. I grew up in a tradition where being a photographer was a very noble pursuit. You pursued it for the love and the passion, and doing it was a very difficult thing to do. There are thousands and thousands of people who take photographs, but very few photographers, because one has to have an eye, one has to have the vision, one has to have something to say." Rodney Smith
http://www.parkeharrison.com/ ::. Trained as a photographer, ParkeHarrison did not follow in the well-practiced wake of environmentally charged photojournalists or social documentaries. Theirs was a cautionary tale fixed in the present day; it did not always project a future. Instead, ParkeHarrison conjures up a destiny in which humankind's overuse of the land has led to environments spent and abandoned. The veracity of the photograph, from which all his images are constructed, provides the convincing backdrop for narratives of separation and loss. And the influences from literature, theater, cinema, and painting enrich the work with symbols supportive of the artist's universal subjects, particularly the struggles of the Everyman... In The Architect's Brother, the theme of the individual human responsibility is recast in a new photographic language resonant with the complexities and uncertainties of present- day life, with its consuming technologies and greater dependency on the land and its resources. In the innovative hands of ParkeHarrison and his wife and partner Shana ParkeHarrison, who collaborates in the conception and execution of the images, this language does not transcribe the natural world. Instead, it reinvents it in compelling personal narratives that attest to the continuing power of art to address contemporary cultural issues.
http://www.starnstudio.com/ ::. Mike and Doug Starn, American artists and identical twins, were born in New Jersey in 1961. Working collaboratively in photography since age thirteen, they continue to defy categorization by effectively combining traditionally separate disciplines such as sculpture, painting, video, and installation. Their work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide for two decades, and has received international critical acclaim for their conceptual approach to photography. Fueled by their thoughtful investigations of art, philosophy, cognitive science and history, the Starns provoke an interrogation of Cartesian ontology with their unique melding of metaphor and material. From the transformation of a delicate drying leaf into a digital sculpture, or a moth etched onto film by light, its own undoing, the Starns’ images thrum with the poetic tension between presence and absence, darkness and enlightenment.
http://www.ashesandsnow.org/en/flash-popup.php ::. In the "ashes and snow" fine art photography exhibition, every one of Gregory Colbert’s photographs captures a moment that happened. The cynical eye is trained to assume trickery in images such as these, is resistant to the idea that they could represent the actual and the possible, but these images owe nothing to Photoshop, photo manipulation, montage, artificial lighting, or special effects. He has taken the medium of the instantaneous and turned it into something slow, expansive, epic. You could be looking at a moment that occurred yesterday, or three hundred years ago. The effect is uncanny. You feel as if you are in the presence of a dream, a myth, a fairy tale. The prints are approximately three feet by ten, on dense, Japanese cloth-like parchment manufactured in a secret medieval process. When Colbert travels they occupy their own seat next to him on the plane. The collection is the result of an ongoing 14 year long project, of which these pictures form a small sample.
http://www.maggietaylor.com/indexframe.html ::. Maggie Taylor was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1961, and graduated from Yale University in 1983 with a BA in philosophy. In 1987 she received an MFA in photography from the University of Florida. During this time her work evolved from black-and-white suburban landscapes to more personal and narrative color still-life imagery. Using an old 4x5 view camera and natural light, she photographed bits and pieces of the everyday: old toys, broken bottles, and animals from the garden. Since 1987 her still-life photographs have been exhibited in more that 60 one-person exhibitions throughout the U.S. In 1996 and 2001 she received State of Florida Individual Artist’s Fellowships. Her current images explore the use of a computer and a flatbed scanner in place of a camera. By placing objects directly on the glass top of the scanner she is able to create a unique type of digital image which has some photographic qualities.
http://www.hiroshiwatanabe.com ::. Hiroshi Watanabe : " My photographs reflect both genuine interest in my subject as well as a respect for the element of serendipity. I strive for both calculation and discovery in my work, studying my subjects in preparation, while at the same time keeping my mind open for the surprises. The pure enjoyment of this process drives and inspires me. Mostly, I seek to capture people, traditions, and locales that first and foremost are of personal interest, while other times I seek pure beauty. I wish for my images to distill scenes ranging from the ephemeral to the eternal, from the esoteric to the symbolic. A current that underlies my work is the concept of preservation. I make every effort to be a faithful visual recorder of the world around me, a world in flux that, at very least in my mind, deserves preservation, and that I constantly seek to expand ".
http://www.f45.com ::. Rolfe Horn : Art is an expression of life that transcends both time and space. We must explore our own souls through art to give a new form and a new meaning to the nature of the world. Photography is my chosen medium to project my inner vision into the world, to state in aesthetic creation the deepest psychic and personal experiences of my being. The creation of a photograph is the unfolding of the personality, the deepening of the personal dimension of the soul. There is a certain point in time, where the harmony of light, atmosphere, and spirit collide, a place in the cosmos where the rhythm of nature unfolds in front of the camera. This can only happen once. I hope my fortuitous images bring to you the wonder I have seen.
http://www.johnpaulcaponigro.com/gallery/ ::. Artists are often called upon to make statements about their work. Whether speaking in lectures, talking in interviews, writing in electronic interviews, or writing for publication or public display, I've found this process to be very useful personally—so much so that I make it an integral part of my artistic practice.
http://www.fazalsheikh.org/ ::. It is one thing to photograph a group of people, it is another to try to understand them. For that you need time, and patience, and an innate respect for difference – the gulf between your own religion, politics, economic status, language, and those of the person in front of you. Trying to bridge that gulf with a camera invites suspicion and misrepresentation. But at a time when traditional photographic coverage is often limited to a brief stopover and a search for sensational images, the need to take time and represent and understand the people whose lives and values are very different from our own is greater than ever.
http://www.chemamadoz.com/ingles/gallery1.htm ::. Not everything is what it seems to be, and chema madoz (madrid 1958) ensures it’s evidence. Hidden among daily things arises new worlds. New dimensions led by metaphor alter the perception of an immediate reality. The absurd, the paradox, the humor – why not the wittiness – are to be found at the photographers studio. The idea commences its process of superiority of the object and establishes a given discontent. The irony with which madoz assaults recognizable objects creates a relationship with viewers that leads to paths of a parallel universe.
http://prismes.free.fr/index.htm ::. Whether you know Sophie Thouvenin as *prismes or as ~prismopola, you are familiar with her unique vision. If, when browsing, you discover one of her pieces, you will instantly recognize it to be hers, and for this to be true is a real accomplishment for a photographer indeed. Though born in Switzerland, Sophie Thouvenin was raised in Strasbourg in eastern France. She has been living in Paris for three years now. We are all fortunate that, at the age of sixteen, her father gave her his camera, for, although she studied psychology, business, and art history, she decided to concentrate on photography.
http://shinichimaruyama.com/ ::. As a young student, I often wrote Chinese characters in sumi ink. I loved the nervous, precarious feeling of sitting before an empty white page, the moment just before my brush touched the paper. I was always excited to see the unique result of each new brushing. Once your brush touches paper, you must finish the character, you have one chance. It can never be repeated or duplicated. You must commit your full attention and being to each stroke. Liquids, like ink, are elusive by nature. As sumi ink finds its own path through the paper grain, liquid finds its unique path as it moves through air. Remembering those childhood moments, of ink and empty page, I fashioned a large 'brush' and bucket of ink. I get the same feeling, a precarious nervous excitement, as I stand before the empty studio space. Each stroke is unique, ephemeral. I can never copy or recreate them. I know something fantastic is happening, "a decisive moment", but I can't fully understand the event until I look at these captured afterimages, these paintings in the sky.