ASSIGNMENTS:

VIEW STUDENTS' WORK ON THEIR INDIVIDUAL PAGES

ASSIGNMENT 03 - Propaganda

DUE WED 05.11.2009

PROMPT:
Create an 'Ideological Image" by compositing two or more images.

By combining images, a new network of meanings is created. In the presence of another image, one can be distorted and transformed. Create a single image which is forceful, persuasive, coercive, activist or political.

Do not take the word propaganda literally. Instead, take it to mean that the message behind your project should directly determine its composition. Of course, such work comes with the risk of being preachy, or cliche. Avoid the obvious. Change our perspectives in an original way.

REQUIREMENTS:
1. Your piece must have a clear ideology or persuasive message.
2. Composit Two or more images, one of which must be shot by you.
3. Make 1 print: 30 x 40 in. (your piece doesn’t have to be these dimensions exactly, but should be 40 in on one side)

ARTIST REFERENCES:
AES+F
Chris Jordan
Peter Funch

ASSIGNMENT 02 - Fact & Fiction

DUE WED 04.20.2009

PROMPT:
“The destiny of photography has taken it far beyond the role to which it was originally thought to be limited: to give more accurate reports on reality (including works of art). Photography is the reality; the real object is often experienced as a letdown.” -Susan Sontag

If pictures are worth thousands of words, most of them are lies. Though photographs espouse factuality and a sense of historical permanence, they are powerful distortions, and phenomenological formations. At best they can achieve plausibility.

Or perhaps they point out deeper more complex truths, relaying ideas failed by language, or our visual perception. By stopping time and isolating an event or thing can point to something that wasn’t actually there in front of the camera.

Explore this tenuous dichotomy of truth and fiction in photography. You can take the words as literally or poetically as you like. Produce two images depicting the same SUBJECT. One image must be “factual” or “real” and the other must be “fictional” or “constructed”. At least one of the two images must be shot in a controlled lighting setting, using either the studio or a lighting kit.

REQUIREMENTS:
1. 2 high quality prints no smaller than 16”x20”
2. At least one image must be shot in a controlled light setting, using a lighting kit.
3. Answer the following questions: How does your diptych explore notions of truth and fiction in photography? Why did you chose the technique or process that you did?

ARTIST REFERENCES:
Jeff Wall
Thomas Demand
Harold Edgerton
Yasumasa Morimura
Vik Muniz
Thomas Ruff

ASSIGNMENT 01 - PHOTO SPREE

DUE WED 04.08.09

PROMPT:
Photography has the ability to transform, enhance, reveal, and erase a subject, among a multitude of other actions and potentialities. The ability to anticipate and recognize photographic opportunities is a learned skill, which takes practice, error and luck.

This assignment is meant to develop your vision as a photographer. Color, form, space and time function differently through the camera than your own eye. By shooting a large volume of images in a short time, you will have to look for interesting images in the life that you occupy. Take time to experiment with the people, situations and spaces around you.

REQUIREMENTS:
1. Shoot 150 Images with a digital SLR Camera
2. Print the two images you find most interesting, 11x17in
3. Upload All your images to the class Flickr account, organize them in a set.

ARTIST REFERENCES:
Robert Frank
Alfred Stieglitz
William Eggleston
Nan Goldin
Wolfgang Tillmans
Uta Barth