December

The beginning photography students continue to work on their shutterspeed assignment and are starting an assignment on abstraction and depth of field.  They will be mainly working with objects and hopefully will be finished by winter break.  Here is a segment of an artist talk by Keith Carter.  I really like his work and love how he talks about it.




Here are some examples of his work:

November

The end of the 1st quarter has come.  Beginning photo students finished their first shooting and printing assignment on framing techniques.  The advanced students finished self portraits.  Lots of good work being done.  I went to an IB art training all weekend and am looking forward to putting some new ideas into action.  Here is a video we saw that you might enjoy.  Click on the link to go to You Tube.

Creature Comforts

Beginning Students are starting to work with the creative controls of using shutter speed and depth of field effectively.  Advanced students will start working with the concept of change and perception.  Duane Michals is a photographer who uses those creative controls and works with the concepts of change and perception.  Here are a few of his images:

Duane Michals, Dr. Heisenberg’s Magic Mirror of Uncertainty

October News

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.

September News

Students have been busy working on the Early Processes assignment in Beginning Photography.  There have been some terrific pinhole images made and I am hearing great ideas from the students who are working on photograms.  The weather held up for us and many students got to make cyanotypes.  I will be checking out my cameras to students who need them on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 at LUNCH!  Make sure to bring $20.00.  It will be a first come, first serve basis-when the cameras are gone, they are gone.  Students need to have their cameras ready to go for the first week of October.  Please make sure they are in good working condition.  If you can find the manual, bring that also. 
We will be starting to look at the early history of photography in October. Here are some early and current daguerreotypes, tintypes and some early photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron.

 early daguerreotype

contemporary daguerreotype by Jody Ake

Julia Margaret Cameron

Contemporary tintype by Kyoung Lee

Welcome Back

It is a new school year with lots of changes. The biggest change for all of us is the move to a full block schedule. I like a block schedule-more time for going in depth into a project and less transitions. It will be a transition for all though. Some things will work better than others. It should prove to be an interesting year. Posted under the Beginning Assignments link are the syllabus, grading policy, an outline of the entire year's projects and a supply list. Start looking for a camera now. I have 10 to rent out for the year. You are required to have your own camera for this class. Look at Goodwill, Blue Moon, Cameraworks Northwest, Pro Photo, and on Craig's List. Make sure to take any used or older model camera in to Cameraworks to be cleaned and checked out. A camera that is not in working condition is not going to work for this class. Our first assignments are going to be cameraless-you will be building a pinhole camera and making photograms in the darkroom. Cameras will be needed by the end of September.
Here are some images of photograms, pinhole photos, and lumens.

Summer

I am writing this from sunny and hot Mexico where I am preparing for another day of laying in the sun, swimming in the gorgeous Sea of Cortez and photographing the rich tide pools. The year ended with a bang in the beginning classes with many absolutely stunning portfolios of work. I was really impressed with the level of work. Now it is time for some needed relaxation for all. So, I am wishing all of you a wonderful summer filled with lots of beauty, inspiration, and fun. Good luck to all you graduating seniors. I will miss you.

End of the Year

The seniors have only one more full week of school. In Beginning Photography, they are finishing up all landscapes and putting the last touches on their final portfolios. The Advanced Photo students are preparing for the Senior Show. We will be getting the display set all this week. Please join us to celebrate their accomplishments this Thursday. The opening is from 5:30 to 7:30 in the main hall and Lincs Gallery. The spring band concert follows.

The Final Push

We are starting the last assignments of the year-Urban Landscape and Natural Landscape. Photo essays just got turned in. I was so impressed with them. Students really pushed themselves and ended up with some terrific work. Themes for the essays ranged from collarbones to people in Paris, from the idea of emergence to superstitions. I saw lots of creativity and thought going into this project. Some students worked digitally and started learning about Lightroom. For the landscape assignments, students will be able to choose whether to work with film and traditional darkroom techniques or to work digitally. The last job for everyone is to get their final portfolios together.

Springtime

The beginning photo students just finished up both the portrait and altered image assignments. Some fabulous work came out of both of these assignments. Check out the slideshow of some of the portraits. Students worked with transfer techniques, cutting up and reassembling, weaving with photos and doing giant rasterizations of photos for the altered image assignment. They are now finishing up 3rd quarter with a research project and then beginning a photo essay assignment.

Start of Second Semester

First semester ended with the beginning students showing some stellar portfolios. Students should feel incredibly proud of the work they did. In the advanced class, the final projects that everybody did blew me away! Some really interesting, beautiful, challenging pieces came out. I think the final show in May is going to be one of the best. This is an extremely talented, hard working group.
In the beginning classes we are starting our portraiture unit. I can't wait to see what everyone does with this. I have posted some of the different types of portraiture I want students to explore. We just got done watching a film on the life and work of Annie Leibowitz for inspiration. Below are some other portraits by Mary Ellen Mark, Arnold Newman, and a contemporary photographer from the northwest-Corey Arnold.



In the Advanced Photo class, we are going to start making books. We will start out making concertina books based on a color.
We will be checking out online bookmaking sites such as Blurb and also learning how to do some different types of artists books.

January in Photography Classes

Everyone is busy getting ready for the end of the semester. Beginning students are working on the light, shadow, reflection assignment and getting their final portfolios together. Advanced students have a final project to do. This is a project designed to stretch their imaginations and show me what they can do with the photographic knowledge they have.
Here is a video on an amazing discovery in Chicago sent to me by Sienna, one of my advanced students. It tells the story of a woman named Vivian Maier, a nanny, who took thousands of amazing photographs on the streets of Chicago through her lifetime and never showed them to anyone. Her photographs were recently discovered and some say they are on par with Walker Evans and Robert Frank.