IMPORTANT DATES

FINAL PROJECT; 10-12 jpegs, 7-10 prints

Wednesday 11/4     Enough work completed to make a few prints

Monday 11/9    Midpoint (formal) critique–graded

Wednesday 11/11    Printing lab

Monday 11/16         Printing lab

Wednesday 11/18  Final critique (in-person). Prints on the wall

Friday 12/4  All work for the course due

• Projects/portfolio
• anything else that is overdue

FINAL PORTFOLIO. 1200 pixel jpegs, quality:10-12

• 10-12 project images
• 8-10 jpeg, "greatest hits" from other assignments (not including final project) in the class. Anything created for the course (cyanotypes, etc.) is fair game.

Bayles & Orland, round 2

For Monday 11/2. 

Please read chapter 3 of Bayles and Orland’s “Art & Fear.” 

Email written responses to Chris as word file. We will also have an active discussion of your answers:

1. What fears do you have about yourself, when it comes to making art? Everybody has them, so let's be frank. 
2. Ego cuts both ways; it can tell us we are special, talented, (or perhaps) above others. It can also tell us that we don’t have what it takes. Both are (mostly) wrong. What are your beliefs regarding “natural” talent and getting down to the business of actual art-making?
3. What is your relation to “perfection” as the authors describe it.
4. Is there a place for “magic” in your art? What is it? How do you make your own magic?
5. The authors suggest: “Ask your work what it needs, not what you need.” Let’s unpack this. Pick a piece of artwork from this class that you created over this past week. Sincerely and inquisitively ask your artwork what it needs, in order to develop. What next steps does it suggest? 
6. On the other hand, how might you be relying on your art to fulfill your (personal) needs? What might these needs or expectations be? Are they reasonable? How might this be helping/hindering your art? In your answer, argue both sides.

Reading assignment, written response and discussion. Art 418/518/618

For Monday 10/26. Email written responses to Chris as word file. We will also have an active discussion of your answers

Please read chapters 1&2 of Bayles and Orland’s “Art & Fear.” The file is located here:

https://alabama.box.com/s/i1wx69rv3zmmqyotj35u2oh423y3pwsl

Please answer the following questions in a reflective way. When quoting or paraphrasing from the book, please use a citation with a page number. Ex: (Bayles, Orland, p. 1)

1. According to the authors (Bayles and Orland), why can it be so difficult to make art?
2. What do you find difficult about art-making? What comes easily?
3. Who’s the artist: the “creative genius” or ordinary person? The authors suggest that the latter is more likely the “ideal artist.” Please explain this reasoning in your own words. Then describe your own strengths and challenges as an artist.
4. What does your own art have to teach you?
5. Drawing from chapter 2, what makes you thrive (or not quit) as an artist?
6. How is your art dangerous and revealing about who you are?
7. How do you navigate uncertainty as an artist?

Charting your course

Weekly class exercise, starting 10/19

Project plan

1. Working on my project this week, I will…
2. Working on my project next week, I will…
3. Working on my project today, I will…
4. Working on my project tomorrow, I will…
5. Regarding my project, the things I have an understanding of, and confidence in, are…
6. Regarding my project, the things I have concerns, questions or unknowns about are…
7. Some risks I could take right now are…
8. Some safe pathways I could follow right now are…

Graduate student reading assignment and discussion #2

Discussion: Wednesday, October 14th

Please read and prepare for written responses/discussion. Note, I've changed up the readings a bit, based on current relevance.

• Chapter 2 (The Photography Reader) Marjorie Perloff: What has Occurred only Once
• Chapter 34 (The Photography Reader) Bailey and Hall: The Vertigo of Displacement
• Chapter 35 (The Photography Reader) bell hooks: In Our Glory: Photography and Black Life
• Chapter 36 (The Photography Reader): Martin and Spence: Photo Therapy

Focus questions:

1. Where Barthes is concerned with finding pearls of personal meaning from a specific photo (of his mom), Boltanski seems more concerned with a sea of anonymous faces, each of whom might be anyone, or no-one at all. Based on Perloff's article, discuss how Christian Bolstanski's various art projects widen (and somewhat challenge) the conversation started by Barthes, about photography's ability to authenticate some kind of specific and knowable truth. Suggestion: focus on one of Boltanski's works to illustrate your points. It can also be helpful to look at his work online. Take your time with this article; it can be a slow go, but it has some useful ideas. 
2. Summarize bell hooks' position that the black liberation movement has been a "struggle over images," and how the camera and vernacular image-making in black life is a form a resistance to the misrepresentative "norms" of white, visual culture. How does the "keeper of walls" (a great phrase) perform the work of a cultural / political activist? How might this relate to art production that likewise engages personal/family histories?
3. According to the Martin and Spence article, how might any family photo album be as much (or more) about coded societal norms and expectations for photographic representation than it is about the individual lives depicted? Please also weigh-in with your own opinions about this (perhaps relating it to your own art practice).
4. How might some of the strategies suggested by Martin and Spence for using photography in therapy be used for art practices that likewise engage themes of identity and personal/family histories?

Proposal for Work: Graduate Students

Due: Wednesday 9/30

Write a 2-3 page (double space) proposal for how the remainder of this course will be used to inform and contribute to your primary body of graduate work. 

This course can be used to experiment with new techniques, concepts, methods, but also to consider critical theory and/or the work of other artists. How will this activity feed your primary work in concrete ways? Strive to create work in this course that can be part of your primary body of graduate work. 

Please address in your proposal:

1. How your activity in this course is relevant to your primary graduate work (i.e. endeavor to make this course relevant; you are in the driver's seat)
2. The various experiments you will "workshop" in this course
3. Any specific areas of research (critical theory, reading) and how they are relevant
4. Clear outcomes you will submit for evaluation

• Outcomes should consist of 3-5 succinct items, which might include the following:

1. Multiple finished works of art, that use new process/technique experiments, informed by researching other artist(s), such as...
2. Multiple finished works of art, that use new approaches (conceptual, aesthetic and/or technical) informed by reading critical theory, such as...
3. A written paper that tackles elements of photo critical theory, contemporary practices (and artists) that pertains directly to your primary graduate work
4. Other...

Please provide citations and footnotes in your paper when paraphrasing or quoting someone else's ideas. 

Major Project Proposal: 418s

Due: Wednesday 9/30

Write a 2-3 page (double space) proposal for a project that will engage you for the remainder of the semester. This should be a substantial and ambitious project that results in photographic artwork suitable for public exhibition. The project should be fully realized on conceptual, aesthetic and technical levels. 

Please address in your proposal:

1. Present your main concept/idea to be explored/engaged by the work
2. Discuss the work of 2 well-known photographic artists who have also engaged this idea (choose critically)
3. Discuss how your work may differ from the aforementioned photographers with respect to the concept
4. What do you think your pictures might look like, visually / aesthetically?
5. Discuss the work of 2 well-known photographic artists who might inspire some adventurous visual pathways to explore.
6. Related to concepts and aesthetics, what will you need to do to pull this all off, technically? 
7. Discuss the work of 1-2 other photographic artists who had to overcome similar technical hurdles. Did they need special equipment? Lighting? The ability to print on unusual surfaces? What will you need to do? 
8. How many final images do you anticipate will comprise this project? 
9. Any thoughts about scale (size of prints) and format (individual photos, diptychs, grids, objects, etc.)?
10. What degree of compromise will be acceptable to you, considering the timespan of this project?

Please provide citations and footnotes in your paper when paraphrasing or quoting someone else's ideas. 

Artists for the Blog Roster

For Wednesday 9/23

Research and contribute one artist that presents compelling subject matter/concepts in innovate ways, aesthetically, technically (or both). Someone you admire. 

Email the name of the artist and pertinent website(s) to Chris

Assignment: Call and Response. Art 418, 518, 618

Due: Monday, 9/28 by class time. The week after that, your images will be printed own the large-format printer, so plan accordingly (shoot RAW, use good camera skills).

Sherrie Levine's challenging project, pushing the bounds of appropriation in a post-modern world.

How I engaged with Meghan Riepenhoff's work, tried to "reverse engineer"/ figure out what she was doing with "wet process cyanotype," and then apply some of these discoveries to my own interests/work.

This is a very useful exercise to engage with another artist's thought process and working methods. It is active research, through making and reflecting. From the experience, you can distill useful approaches into your own work, moving it forward in new ways. 

Remember the famous quote attributed to Picasso: "Good artists borrow, great artists steal."

Please create two works/pieces, as follows:

1. Choose an image by the artist you have researched. Recreate the piece as closely as possible. This pertains to subject, location, lighting, arrangement, etc.... everything.  Stage/re-enact /build, as required, to pull it off. As you face challenges, use your resources (which may include your professor) to problem solve. 

Choose your piece carefully... it should balance challenge with attainability. Generate a plan of attack before you embark. The finished piece should be a very close interpretation of the original.

2. What did you discover from the above experience? Identify one aspect that was most intriguing or useful to you. That aspect might relate to subject matter, composition, use of color, lighting, whatever... Create a piece of your own, drawn from your own interests (and perhaps, related to what you might pursue for a long-term project) that utilizes this one "borrowed/stolen" aspect. In other words, identify the main take-away you got from the artist you were studying and apply it to your own work. 

Due: Monday, 9/28 by class time. The week after that, your images will be printed own the large-format printer, so plan accordingly (shoot RAW, use good camera skills).

It's all about that blue: cyanotypes

Sir John Herschel

Cyanotype is a historic process that dates back to 1842, discovered/invented by Sir John Herschel. 

A UV light sensitive solution, consisting of two chemicals, ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide is applied to paper by hand or by machine.

When the coated paper is exposed to bright UV light (sun), it undergoes a complex chemical reaction, eventually turning a vibrant, rich Prussian Blue color. The paper is processed, or cleared, in water. The color then intensifies with time/oxidation. The blue color can be altered, or reduced, with toning, sometimes with tea, coffee and other substances. 

Cyanotypes can be used with negatives to create positive prints, objects to create photograms, or some combination of the two. There are also various experimental processes that can be tried, with sometimes quite exciting results. The process is non-toxic and safe for kids... just don't eat the paper or drink the processing water. Also called "Sun Prints."

Fun fact: this process used to be used commercially by architects and designers to create "blue prints." 

Many artists, old and new, have used the process. It can be a love/hate relationship with the distinctive Prussian Blue. Some people just don't like it! One solution is to tone the print to another color. 

Lately, there has been resurgence of interest in the process. 

Here are a few examples from older to newer:

Anna Atkins (1840s)

John Dugdale (1999)

https://vagazine.com/masters-of-photography/john-dugdale-master-photographer/

Annie Lopez

https://annielopezartist.com

Christian Marclay

https://fraenkelgallery.com/portfolios/cyanotypes

Meghann Riepenhoff

http://meghannriepenhoff.com/project/littoral-drift/

Christopher Jordan

Christopher Jordan

http://www.jordanphoto.com/?page_id=3402

Assignment, 318/418/518/618

For Wednesday, 9/9, by class time 

• Gather/assemble some digital imagery to convert into negatives
• Build digital negative files and bring them to class
• Bring thin objects to photogram (lace, leaves, etc.)

Lighting Demo

Portrait Lighting

Setup: 45º/45º lighting, LED light on stand, with and without tracing paper diffusion (do not use with hot lights!). Exposure determined with white card, opening up two stops. ISO 400

Results:

Rembrandt, no fill card. Notice "key triangle" under the shadowed eye

Rembrandt, with fill card

Rembrandt, with diffusion (tracing paper) and fill card

Setup:

Setup: Butterfly/beauty lighting. Light in front shining down on model to create slight drop shadow under nose. Light position is more-or-less centered. LED light on stand, with and without tracing paper diffusion (do not use with hot lights!). Exposure determined with white card, opening up two stops. ISO 400

Beauty/butterfly lighting, no fill card

Beauty/butterfly lighting, filled in with small clamp light from below (half the power as main light)

Still life #1, 2-plane

Setup:

Setup: 45º/45º lighting, small clamp light on stand, with and without tracing paper diffusion (do not use with hot lights!). Exposure determined with white card, opening up two stops. ISO 800

45º/45º, no fill card

45º/45º, with fill card

45º/45º, diffused (tracing paper) no fill card

45º/45º, diffused (tracing paper) with fill card

Still life #2, 1-plane

Perpendicular set-up: Light and camera perpendicular to each other, shooting onto floor. LED light on stand, with and without tracing paper diffusion (do not use with hot lights!). Exposure determined with white card, opening up two stops. ISO 400

Without fill card

With fill card (right side of apple is brighter)

For reflective objects.

Use the perpendicular setup, above, to avoid reflections altogether.

Often, careful use of reflection can add a sense of surface realism, when done well. For this, place the camera on the opposite side of the light. Adjust the height and shooting angle to position the light source so that it shows up/reflects directly in the shiny surface.

However, and a big HOWEVER, you must diffuse the light source (and often use a larger light source), for this to look decent. Compare the two images below. The bottom one avoids the hot spot caused by a direct reflection of the light, because it is diffused by the tracing paper. Also, notice how this reflection "rolls off" toward one corner of the iPad, which makes for a better design. 

Direct reflection of light on surface of iPad. Looks bad!

Direct reflection of light on surface of iPad, but diffused. Looks much better!

Graduate Student Reading Assignment and Discussion (Art 518/618)

Roland Barthes, smoking

Text: Liz Well: The Photography Reader

Read: Chapter 1; Roland Barthes, Extracts from Camera Lucida

Discussion Monday, 9/14. Wednesday 9/16 Discuss and turn in written responses to focus questions. 

Focus questions:

1. According to Barthes, what is the essence of photography as a medium? In other words, what makes it distinctive from other media, such as painting? 
2. What does Barthes mean by: "the referent adheres"?
3. From Barthes' (somewhat dramatic) perspective, how might the photographic portrait be considered a (metaphorical) assassination of the sitter?
4. What are studium and punctum, as Barthes presents them? How is this important when considering the various kinds of photography we face every day (vernacular, news, art, your own, etc.)
5. Why does the "Winter Garden" photograph emotionally satisfy Barthes, while the many others of his mother do not? In your answer please discuss in relation to Barthes' notions of "the almost"/simulacrum created by the photograph, as well as studium/punctum
6. How do some of these ideas pertain to your own work?

Assignment: Photography in America Now (418/518/618)

©Jessica Backhaus

Assignment:

Research and present on a photographic exhibition of your choice that was or will be on view in 2020 or 2021 in the United States. The artist may be international or American. 

You will need to provide visual imagery in a powerpoint to accompany your presentation. 

You must select an exhibition by Wednesday 9/2 for instructor approval, with 1-2 alternate choices. The artist needs to be a major contemporary (currently living and making new work) photographic artist.

Components:

(100 points total)

• Introduction of artist’s background, 20 points
• Presentation on the background of institution hosting the exhibition, 20 points
• Description of work in exhibition, 40 points
• Q&A, 20 points

Presentation dates:

9/14 Monday Graduate Students

9/16 Wednesday   Art 418 students

A few major galleries, photo museums and spaces to keep an eye on:

NY

Pace/MacGill Gallery

Howard Greenberg Gallery

Yancey Richardson Gallery

Danziger Gallery

Laurence Miller Gallery

Robert Mann Gallery

Janet Borden

Higher Pictures

Bonni Benrubi Gallery

Robert Mann Gallery

Yossi Milo Gallery

Julie Saul Gallery

Clamp Art

Center for Photography at Woodstock (Upstate NY)

 

Boston

Photographic Resource Center

Panopticon Gallery

 

Los Angeles

Annenberg Space for Photography

Peter Fetterman Gallery

 

Blue Sky Gallery (Portland)

Center for photographic Art Carmel, CA (https://photography.org)

Vermont Center for Photography (Brattleboro, VT)

SF CameraWork (San Francisco)

Houston Center for Photography

MoCP (Museum of Contemporary Photography) Chicago

Museum of Photographic Arts (San Diego)

Southern Museum of Photography (Daytona Beach, Florida)

George Eastman House (Rochester NY)

Center for Photographic Art (http://www.c4fap.org) Fort Collins, CO

Center for Creative Photography (Tuscon, AZ)

Class experience: contemplative approach(es) to photography

Exercise: Color wandering

Steps:

 1. Set intention: “I am looking for color” 

• Look for bold, vivid colors. Look for colors without subjects. For example, your “target” might not necessarily be a red fire hydrant, but instead (perhaps) a colorful, purple, berry stain on the concrete. Who knows? You’ll know it when you see it!
• Look for colors close to you or far away…whatever grabs your attention. If it’s far away, move in that direction and get closer. Generally, avoid black, white or grey. 

2. Wander and look:

• With eyes wide open, begin to walk and wander, pulled only by perceptions of color that catch your eye. Be open to any color that grabs your attention, and then like a bee, make a beeline for it. Get as physically close as you can to the color that initially grabbed your attention. The color is inviting you to have a closer look.
• If nothing grabs your attention, take some deep breaths and keep wandering. Something is bound to appear, eventually. 

3. Looking deeply, in the moment

When you arrive, close to your special color/object, stop moving and just look...take it in for a while. Take your time. Breathe. Enjoy and indulge the moment; look very closely at your color/object. Give it the time of day.

4. Distill the essence

• Do this step without raising the camera to your eye. Trust your natural vision. 
• Discern, visually, what is essential about what you are seeing. Just look. 
• In other words, what is it that first grabbed your attention in the first place? What is extra, or perhaps, distracting from the color/object?
• This may include a recognition that your special color/object is surrounded by other color/objects that might be less important to you, at the moment. 
• In other words, decide, visually, what is part of your “special color moment,” and what is not. 

5. Make the picture

• Raise the camera to the eye and frame the picture to match your distilled perception, exactly…add nothing more, nothing less. Use zoom, or physically move, to optimize your cropping. 
• Adjust exposure, focus, d-o-f, etc.
• Click
• Breathe deeply, exhale, and move on to the next fish

Note: this exercise can be change/adapted to other kind of things, such as textures, shapes, light events, or even objects that provoke certain feelings, etc.

Assignment 2: Contemplative Approaches to Seeing/Photography

Monday, August 24th, in-person class experience. Meet in Woods 209A. 

Homework: Create more contemplative photographs on your own. Due: Monday 8/31 

In class assignment. Please bring camera, charged batteries, and memory cards. Rain or shine. Dress accordingly.

We will be sitting, chilling, walking around, making pictures. A yoga mat or small folding blanket might be nice for sitting.

Ghost Ranch Workshop Student

Ghost Ranch Workshop Student

Some contemplative photos from my forthcoming book (to be published Spring 2021):

Nowhere in Place: Where Meditation and Photography Meet. By Christopher Jordan, with an introduction by Hank Lazer. George F. Thompson Publishing, L.L.C. Published in association with the Center for the Study of Place.

Assignment 1: Conceptual Contrast

Art 318/418/518/618

A useful, and sometimes amusing, strategy when working conceptually can be to contrast two or more ideas within the same photograph. 

For example, how can a photograph simultaneously communicate the ideas: "danger" and "safety", or "freedom" and "trapped", or "fast" and "slow."

This can be called: conceptual contrast. Graphically, we talk about the contrast between lights and darks, or between warm and cool colors, but what about the contrast between ideas?

Perhaps the subject and the background point to different "truths," realities, or backstories that complicate the whole picture.... maybe in contradictory,  ironic or challenging ways. Sometimes the contrast can even be found between multiple subjects while the background simply functions as a neutral stage.

How does conceptual contrast play through the images below?

Are opposites suggested? Or is a "simple truth" made more complex or nuanced ?

Assignment: Create 10-20 well thought-out images that employ some form of conceptual contrast. Find, stage, or otherwise create subject matter/background for your pictures, placing all elements within a single frame, in-camera (no photoshop).  

DUE: Shoot RAW, process into JPEG and upload to dropbox by class, Wednesday 8/26.


© Craft


© Jones


© Heather Orlando


©Anne Beeke (for educational purposes)


©Anna Beeke (for educational purposes)

more:
http://www.annabeeke.com/projects/amsterdam-ny/portfolio-chairs/


©Susan Copich  (for educational purposes)


©Susan Copich  (for educational purposes)

more:
http://susancopich.com/shows/domestic-bliss/


© Hans Gindlesberger (for educational purposes)


© Hans Gindlesberger (for educational purposes)

more:
http://gindlesberger.com/2018/11/04/hopelesss/


©Nirmal Raja and Lois Bielefeld (for educational purposes)


©Nirmal Raja and Lois Bielefeld (for educational purposes)

more:
http://lenscratch.com/2019/12/on-collaboration-on-belonging-by-nirmal-raja-and-lois-bielefeld/


©Alexandra Brand (for educational purposes)


©Alexandra Brand (for educational purposes)

more:
http://lenscratch.com/2018/10/dutch-week-alexandra-brand/


©Katerina Tsakiri (for educational purposes)


©Katerina Tsakiri (for educational purposes)

more:
http://lenscratch.com/2019/11/greece-week-katerina-tsakiri-a-simple-place/