PHOTO 1—History of Photography
Chaffey College, Summer 2017
Instructor: Sarah Bay Gachot

Assignments

Reading Assignments & Homework

Reading Assignments and Homework are to be completed by the lecture day on which they appear on the syllabus and as instructed in class; syllabus assignments are subject to change and will be confirmed, added-to, and edited as needed in lectures. Images and information covered in class discussions will often be additional to those of the reading. You can also download additional suggested readings for research via Dropbox.

Exercises

(considered part of "Assignments & Participation")

During the semester you will do several exercises, including two adapted from The Photographer's Playbook (Eds. Jason Fulford and Gregory Halpern, New York: Aperture, 2014). These exercises include in-class participation, writing, and photographing in the field. We will discuss these exercises further in lecture.

For the first exercise, What to Photograph?, you will, as a class, come up with a list of 5 things to photograph. Each of you can interpret these things as you like, as long as it involves using a camera or appropriated image to express your ideas.

See a PDF of the original exercise instructions from The Photographer's Playbook HERE or on Dropbox. (We are modifying this exercise for only 5 digital photos, FYI).

You will e-mail jpegs of these images by July 6 so that I can get them printed, or you can make your own 4 x 6 inch prints and bring to class on July 18 when we will take a look at what you have come up with.

The five things:

Hair
Interesting co-worker (or fellow student)
Light
Life
Palm Trees

The second exercise will happen in-class on July 13 - the Final Project Ideas Expansion Exercise. This will help you to develop your final project ideas.

On Writing About Photographs

You will do several exercises and assignments that will have you writing about specific images. For these image analyses, consder these questions:

Questions we will ask:
• Did you focus on the formal elementsof the image, like composition?
• Did you write about the technical aspects of the image?
• How about the symbols in image (the iconography)?
• Or the history behind the image?
• Or the personal identity the image expresses?
• Or the phychological factors you find important to the image?
Most of all, this assignment is about seeing and communicating through writing what the image means to you and why you find it important.

In-class Image Analysis for Midterm Test

You will be given one of the images from the SLIDE ID REVIEW above on which you will write an image analysis in class.

For this Image Analysis, you will have as long as the class period after you have finished the rest of the test. At this point you will be able to take out your book (you will have handed in the rest of the test).

Introduce the image with any background information on the photographer or subject matter that you know - a sentence or two. Describe the image as if you were writing for someone who had never seen the image (and never will) and explain how the visual elements and history of this image affect its meaning. Conclude with why you find this image important/successful/alluring/great/(or not).

SOME TIPS:

- See our suggested reading on writing about art. (On Dropbox.)

- Go beyond the content of the image. LOOK CAREFULLY. Describe the content itself to support the main points of your analysis. For instance, (for an imaginary image,) instead of: "There is an elephant and a skyscraper," try something like: "A skyscraper screams into the sky above a massive boulder of an elephant."

- Look over the ENTIRE image. Try turning the image upside-down. What do you see? This especially helps with a formal analysis, abstracting the image to focus on darks, lights, line, mass - all aspects of composition.

- Most of the time, if you use verbs and adjectives that are general - sits, stands, walks, worn, determined, dark, aging, majestic, large - think about embellishing those adjectives and saying why and how they are sitting, standing, walking, worn, determined, dark, aging, majestic, large. Or just find another word that is more interesting than what immediately comes to mind. Make these descriptive words pop; make them more visually specific to the image you are describing.

- Be selective. This is a short analysis so try to focus on what is important in terms of description and the historical background. After you've made your comparison notes, come up with a thesis and then work backwards.

You can also use any of the art historical methodologies we have talked about in class to assist in your analysis. Think of these methods as way to approach your analysis that will help you argue your thoughts on meaning.

Historical context - takes into account the history the objects or subject matter of an image.
Iconography - identifies the symbols in a work, and uses their definition to interpret meaning.
Formalism - considers the visual elements of a work such as line, composition, color, media to interpret meaning.
Technology - uses knowledge about the means of production to find meaning.
Identity politics - considers the position of gender, race, culture, or religion represented or implied in terms of issues of equality and power (or the lack thereof) to interpret meaning.
Psychoanalysis - considers the unconscious effects of experiences or traumatic events in the life of the artist or viewer, or shared by a society, to interpret meaning.

Final Project Summary

You will hand in a final project summary of your proposed final project (below) three weeks before the end of class. This should be just a few sentences about which option for the project you choose, and what your project will be about. If you choose option one, what kind of photo exhibition would you curate? If you choose option two, what issue or episode from photo history are you responding to and how will you make images about this? If you choose option three, what kind of fictional character will you create?

Final Project

By the end of the course, you will have completed a final research project, which can take one of three forms, below. This will be due on Thursday, July 20. A PDF of Final Project instructions can be found HERE.

See our suggested reading on how to write an academic essay. (On Dropbox.)

Choose ONE for your FINAL PROJECT:

1) Curate an Exhibition (10-15 researched photographs, curator's statement of 500 to 1000 words). Research a key moment or concept in the history of photography ad come up with a theme for an exhibition. Choose 10 - 15 photographs that you would include in this exhibition and print them out, with artist name, title, and year, two per page. Write a curator's statement that explains the thesis of your show. Expect to draw from the readings we complete in class as well as outside sources, including but not limited to books from the library, articles online or otherwise, exhibitions in museums or other art institutions, and/or personal interview.

2) Photo Project Response (10-15 original photographs, artist's statement of 500 to 1000 words). For this assignment you will be making your own photographic images in response to a specific event or moment from photo history. Write an artist’s statement for your project that shows your understanding of the historical and cultural context of your chosen event or moment and how you chose to address this through your own work.

3) Fictional Biography (900 to 1500 words). What is missing? Write the biography of a fictional figure you feel is missing from our history of photography. This figure may be of any gender, race, culture, or time period, but must be grounded by the real context of photo history as we have learned it. As a loose model, consider reading the two PDFs (real biographies) that are posted online regarding this assignment: Hollis Frampton, "Eadward Muybridge: Fragments of a Tesseract," Artforum Volume IX, Number 7 (1973): 43 - 52 (PDF), and/or Leo Rubinfien, "The Poetry of Plain Seeing," Art in America, Volume 88, Number 12 (2000):74 - 85 (PDF). You may use images to support your text.

Project Formatting & Citations Please format your summary and final project writing in Times New Roman, double-spaced, 12 pt font. All sources are to be cited in a standardized style, such as Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), MLA or APA. More on how to cite sources can be found here, under "Research Paper Handouts." Images for the Research Paper or Fictional Biography can be within the text or printed separately. Images for the Photo Project Response should be printed as you feel needed.

Midterm & Final Exam

You will have a midterm test June 27 and a final test July 20. These tests will cover class discussion, the reading for the course, and include image identification by artist name.

Extra Credit

Exhibition Report

To be handed in by the end of the course for up to an additional 25 points for visiting one exhibition. You can download a worksheet from the class website with questions to be addressed after visiting an exhibition that includes photography at a museum or gallery. This can be an exhibition that includes other media (e.g. painting, sculpture, ephemera) but photography should be a significant part of the show. Ask, if you are not sure whether your chosen exhibit will be sufficient for the report's purposes. Along with the report, you should include documentation from the museum/gallery (such as an exhibition pamphlet, press release, postcard, etc.).

DOWNLOAD THE TWO-PAGE EXHIBITION REPORT WORKSHEET HERE.

The worksheet includes these instructions:
(you can answer directly on the downloaded sheet or type answers on a separate document to hand in)

Visit a exhibition that includes photography at an off-campus museum or gallery open during this course. This can be an exhibition that includes other media (e.g. painting, sculpture, ephemera) but photography should be a significant part of the show. ALONG WITH THIS REPORT, PLEASE INCLUDE DOCUMENTATION FROM THE MUSEUM/GALLERY (exhibition pamphlet, press release, postcard, etc.).

Title of Exhibition

Venue

Dates on View

Using information such as the curator's statement about the exhibition, the artist's statement/s, or the wall text included in the exhibition, explain in your own words what the key themes or concepts are in this exhibition. In other words, on the whole, what is the exhibition about?

Explain how the exhibition, or a particular part of it, may refer to any concepts or moments from photo history that we have read about or learned in class. Of what does this exhibition remind you from the topics we have covered?

Identify one photograph in the exhibition that you are drawn to for any reason and give an analysis that:

1) describes the work

2) uses one or more of the methods for analysis to explore the possible meanings of the work

3) explains how this work may fit into the overall theme, context, or ideas of the exhibition

Suggested exhibitions that include photography:
(Will be added to...)

At Chaffey

Exhibitions at the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art

In Riverside

Exhibitions at UCR ARTSblock, including the California Museum of Photography (CMP)

In Pasadena

Down and to the Left: Reflections on Mexico in the NAFTA Era, The Armory Center for the Arts

In San Diego

Exhibitions at the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego

In Los Angeles

Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, through June 18, LACMA

Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959-1971 , through July 31, 2016, LACMA

Now Then: Chris Killip and the Making of In Flagrante, The Getty Center

Thomas Annan: Photographer of Glasgow, The Getty Center

In Focus: Jane and Louise Wilson's Sealander, The Getty Center

Star Montana: I Dream of Los Angeles, The Beta Main Museum

Exhibitions at the Annenberg Space for Photography

Commercial Galleries with Photography Exhibitions in Los Angeles

M+B

Rose Gallery

Kopeikin Gallery

Fahey/Klein

Peter Fetterman

Acme



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