A New Year

It is New Year Eve's day, and I am enjoying the sunshine in Mexico with my parents. Realized it has been a very long time since I have updated the website. So, I am taking a break from basking to do a little work. The beginning photo students are working with depth of field and abstraction now. Using mainly still life as a subject, I am hoping they start working with this wonderful creative control (along with shutter speed) to abstract the world a bit. Here is a terrific example of this by Jan Groover:
Hope you all are taking lots of photos and having a great break. I have been working on a video project through animoto.com Turn your speakers up to hear the soundtrack. Enjoy!

Photography News-November

The beginning classes did a great job on their first shooting assignment. There are some terrific photographs up on the board in our room. They are now starting to work more deeply on the creative controls-shutter speed and depth of field. We will be working with these through the holidays. Beginning students will also be starting a research project on a photographer or technique of their choice that is from the earlier history of photography-up to 1950.
Advanced students are starting to work with self portraiture and diptychs. They are also working on a research assignment.
I have been thinking quite a bit about inspiration and where we get it from. I am very inspired by music. Lately the music getting to me most has been anything by Radiohead and Thom Yorke. I came across a couple of YouTube videos that I really liked. Here is one with Thom and Jonny. Make sure to turn your speakers way up!

Beginning Photography End of October

The fall light is beautiful. I am hoping that as I am writing this, my beginning photo students are out shooting film. I know that getting up early on a weekend is the last thing that high school students want to do, but the light is just too lovely to miss.
The photograms are finished and soon to be up in the gallery. Many of the beginning photo students have developed their first rolls of film and are now learning to enlarge and print their best images. On October 30 we will have our first test. The test will cover studio work, composition, and early history of photography. I have posted the history slideshow below to help you study. End of the quarter is also when all journals will be graded. In the "documents for printing" section, I have posted the list of items that should be in everyone's journals at this time. Now it is time for me to go out and capture some of this autumn beauty!

Beginning Photography October News

Photograms are finishing up and looking great. I am seeing lots of creativity, craftsmanship, and thought in these pieces. Next week we start to look at our cameras and will be getting the first shooting assignment. Please make sure to have your cameras checked out so they are in working condition!
I was recently in Chicago and saw lots of great art. The city skyline is spectacular! I saw a fabulous and inspirational photography show at the Chicago Cultural Center of Barbara Crane's work. I have posted a link to an interview with her on the side and a few images, one of which is below. What really struck me about her work was this love of process and how broad her photographic vision is. I am hoping that the weather cooperates with us so we can take some walking field trips to galleries this month.

Beginning Photography News

Welcome back and I hope you are all ready to start making fabulous art! I have a really good feeling about all my classes this year. I am excited to be doing some new projects with both my beginning and advanced students. We will be doing more drawing this year as a way to help us "see" better when we start shooting. I hope that all beginning students are diligently searching for a camera. It is essential to have a 35mm SLR film camera. I only have a very limited amount to rent out, so don't stop looking for one of your own. We are going to be making cyanotypes, lumen prints, chemigrams, and photograms starting next week. Here is a Lumen print that was then gold toned by Marek Matusz
We will also be starting to make pinhole cameras. In the past, students have used everything from an altoid tin to an aluminum bat to make their cameras. This is always a very fun time in the photo room. Here is a pinhole image taken with a tiny camera inside the photographer's mouth.
Here is the slideshow about the photogram assignment for those who were absent.

Time to Get Ready for School

Well, it is getting very near the end of a wonderful summer and the start of a new and exciting school year. Students signed up for the beginning photo class should check out the syllabus and the supply list. It is ESSENTIAL to have a manually operative 35mm FILM camera. A couple of good places to look for cameras are Blue Moon Photography, Craig's List, Camera Works Northwest, and for new cameras-Pro Photo Supply. While we will be doing some digital work, the primary emphasis of this class is learning how to work the creative controls of your camera, develop and print black and white film. We will be spending time writing about and discussing topical issues in photography, doing two research projects, and making lots of thought provoking, beautiful, and meaningful images. The class requires a strong commitment to work outside of the school day. To fully take advantage of the assignments, students should plan on shooting film on the weekends, in the evenings, in the early mornings, and after school.
We will start out making pinhole cameras and working in the darkroom on photograms-a cameraless image. Here is a photogram by Martha Madigan and a pinhole image by Tom Baril.


In the Advanced Photography class, students should start thinking about a couple themes or directions that they want to explore the 1st semester. I am sure all of you have been doing lots of shooting all summer and will be arriving with lots of material to work with!

I am looking forward to seeing everyone on the 8th!

It's SUMMER!!

I am writing this while sipping cappucino in a Mexican internet cafe. I have been in Mexico since the 13th of June. I bought an underwater camera (thanks to Chris Cameron for turning me on to the possibilities) and have been having a blast using it. The tides here are very extreme and so I am seeing some unusual creatures. Mainly, though, I have been shooting the kelp and other underwater plant life. Besides that, I am just relaxing and basking on the beach. Hope all of you are having a wonderful summer.

May Projects

The year is drawing to an end. Seniors last day is June 3rd. In the beginning classes, students just finished up their photo essays. They turned out great! You can see them in the photo room. Students chose their topic to shoot, printed and matted 7 to 10 images, wrote an introduction, and then placed all of these things in a handmade titled envelope. Some of the topics included the Alphabet District of Portland; portraits of 4 generations of women from one family shown by their faces and their hands; a series of images with Radiohead lyrics printed on them; an essay that started out just being about a family trip to the Grand Canyon and ended with photo weavings that incorporated portraits with the landscape; and many more.
Advanced photo students are preparing for the Senior Show which is opening on May 20th. This show honors those seniors who chose to continue working in art beyond a beginning level. Works from the photo students, ceramics, draw-paint-print, and graphic arts classes will be on display.
Here is a video about photographer, Roman Loranc, whose work we looked at in the landscape slideshow.

Happenings in Photography Classes

Wow, so much has been happening in the last month! The beginning students finished up their portrait assignment and are now working on photo essays. The slideshow below shows some of their work. The advanced students finished their "Inspiration and Emulation" pieces. Really wonderful creativity was shown in their work. The inspirations came from subjects as diverse as Hunter Thompson's musings, Chagall paintings, songs of Andrew Bird, David Smith's metal sculptures, Andy Goldsworthy, the David Lynch film "Inland Empire", an Indian dance form called Kathakal, and more. Techniques employed ranged from using liquid light on mulberry paper and aluminum plates, printing on acrylic skins, fabric, handmade papers, polaroid transfers, digital work and traditional black and white. Most of this work will be on display in the Advanced Photography final show in May.
We also have had 3 wonderful speakers this past month. Stuart Allen Levy showed and discussed his new work around photographing his friend who is going through cancer treatment. Two former students, Ben Johnson and Marshall Reynolds Stein showed their work and talked about how they are continuing to work with photography. All were so inspirational. In this last quarter, beginning students will be finishing up their photo essays and then tackling landscape. Advanced students are working on final projects and publishing or making books of their work.

New projects

The beginning students are starting to apply all the skills they learned in 1st semester with the new portrait assignment. To get inspired for this, we just watched "Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens". What a great film! The portraits that are starting to show up in the darkroom are terrific. Students are also finishing up a research project on a photographer, genre, or technique of their choice. They will be presenting these in small groups next week. Here is a slideshow of past beginning students portraits.

The advanced classes are just finishing up making concertina books based on a song with a color in its title. They are really wonderful. The advanced students are also continuing to work on their emulation projects. Some really great work is starting to show up. Lots of creativity is being generated. They will be finishing up and presenting these new pieces right before spring break.

A New Semester

Second semester has arrived. I always feel like that means spring is here too. Beginning students finished up with some wonderful portfolios. Right now my picks of the best pieces are hanging in the Linc Gallery. Students are starting a research project on a photographer, technique, genre, or era of photography of their choice this month. Websites to find information about photographers is on the interesting and useful links portion of this site. Princeton Online is particularly good. They also are really starting to look at light and shadow and how they can use their photography to make beautiful and meaningful pieces.
The advanced class is starting a challenging project that will have students finding inspiration in other creative arts and translating that inspiration into photographic based works. I am really looking forward to seeing what they produce. Here is a slideshow of some of the pieces from the advanced students portfolios from 1st semester.