Beginning Photography News

The beginning classes are halfway through their photogram assignments. There is some very cool work being done. Several students will be finished in a couple of days and will then start shooting with a pinhole camera. They will all be making a camera. To me, this really starts showing the magic of photography. Students have made cameras out of metal bats, a traffic cone, plastic film containers, cookie tins with multiple lenses, altoid tins, and even a metal suitcase! Always a very entertaining time in the photo room. We start looking at the history of photography next week and then it is time for film and cameras.

Advanced Photography News

It is the end of September and the advanced photo students are finding their groove. They finished up the multiple perspectives assignment with some terrific pieces. The subject matter ranged from a closet full of hiking and climbing gear to an underwater swimmer. We read another good article by Brooks Jensen that gave all aspiring photographers "21 Ways to Improve your Photographs". Everyone chose at least one that they are going to work on. The next couple of weeks will be predominately studio work. Students should just be shooting and printing toward their portfolios and secondly, I want them all to make some diptychs. Some examples of diptychs are shown on this page. In October, we will start thinking about self portraits.

Advanced Photography September Projects

In the advanced class, students are deciding what overall theme they will be concentrating on this quarter. We read a great article by Brooks Jensen that posed the question "What is your natural vision?" Students then reflected on their past work about where they felt their natural vision may be. This is where we will start with the 1st quarter portfolio. They also are researching two photographers, one historical and one contemporary, whose work inspires them. They will be giving a presentation to the whole class on these particular photographers and how their work influenced their own. Besides working on this independent side of the class, we are just finishing up the multiple perspectives assignment based on the work of David Hockney. Besides the studio portion of this assignment, research on Hockney and cubism was also required. Some upcoming projects include a free choice studio assignment, an involved journal exercise in which students will "curate" an exhibition, and self portraits. This week students are making diptychs.

Beginning Photography September Projects

School is in full swing already. Did we have a summer vacation? It is getting hard to remember. The beginning photography students have started making photograms and getting used to working in the darkroom. This is one of my favorite projects. I can't wait to see what students decide to do with this assignment. We are discussing composition quite a bit and students will be working on a self portrait collage incorporating some of the elements and principles of design we are concentrating on right now-namely shape, texture, asymmetrical balance, pattern and rhythm. While the weather is good, we will also be enjoying the sunshine while making cyanotypes-an old process in which you paint your emulsion onto a surface, in our case watercolor paper or fabric, and lay objects, transparencies, or even bodies on the emulsion, use the sun to expose this and develop it in water. Later on this month we will be making pinhole cameras and learning about the early history of photography. Here is a slideshow of some photograms by various artists and past students.