In the beginning classes lots of new information is being given students. Everyone is shooting their first assignment, learning how to develop film, print contact sheets, work with filters, and make their first enlargements. We are also studying the history of American Photography. Students watched the PBS film,
American Photography, A Century of Images and then responded to some questions about it in their journals. They will soon be looking for and writing about the oldest family photograph they can find. In the PBS film there is a segment on Edward Curtis. Check out the photo below by him. I wonder if he was at all influenced by Arcimboldo. I also wonder whether contemporary photographer, Joel Peter Witkin was influenced by either Curtis or Arcimboldo in his photograph below. What do you think? I have also posted a couple contemporary daguerreotypes by Chuck Close and Jerry Spagnoli
Edward Curtis
Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Joel Peter Witkin
In the advanced photo class, students are diligently working on their self portraits. Students are shooting both film and digital. Some are working with polaroids and the new film from the Impossible Project. Others are thinking about using digital transfers. I expect I will be seeing lots of interesting pieces. Here is a self portrait by Lana Wong that might serve as inspiration in the part of the assignment about incorporating text.
