Art 418/518 Advanced/Graduate Photo Fall 2020: August 2020

Monday, August 31, 2020

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!

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

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:

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?
What does Barthes mean by: "the referent adheres"?
From Barthes' (somewhat dramatic) perspective, how might the photographic portrait be considered a (metaphorical) assassination of the sitter?
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.)
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
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:

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)

Sunday, August 23, 2020

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.

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

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

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.