Low Light Photography

For this project, use the various techniques emphasized in lecture to record images in dim lighting conditions.  Remember to bracket exposures, consider reciprocity effects, and use a tripod.  Thematically, you should attempt to transcend the obvious “spooky pictures” tendency this type of shooting lends itself to.  Almost as a given, your images will be dramatic.  Can you think of ways to add nuance, subtly, and surprise to the fraught quality of nighttime or low light photographs?

The Photographic Document

Use your photographic skills to describe an event, process, or subject. For this project, you will have to use your camera in a quick, intuitive manner to address the theme of your shooting. To maximize your chances of producing intriguing images, you will want to use more film than usual, and edit your material carefully. Think about the various documentary photographers we discussed in class, and recall their varied image making approaches and strategies. 

Unconventional Beauty

As suggested in lecture, it is often a fairly straightforward matter to make an appealing picture of a stereotypically beautiful subject.  For example, sunsets, stunning landscapes, or “cute kid” photographs can rely on the built-in positive associations we have towards such phenomena.  For this assignment, however, you should attempt to make images of the ordinary, even the ugly, and use your skills as a photographer to allow the viewer to experience your subjects in an unusual, new way.  Consider how you might go about transforming what you photograph by using such tools as lighting, framing, composition, depth of field (or lack of it), and shutter speed.  Above all, endeavor to be creative.  Take chances and attempt the unexpected!

Time

Using any of the various technical, compositional, and/or formal techniques you have learned so far in the class, produce images that in some manner deal with the phenomenon of photographic time. Recall the different types of temporal issues mentioned in the lecture. Pictures may be very time specific, or seemingly nonspecific and “timeless.” Our experience of a photograph may be tethered to a specific historical era. Some photographs rely on a sense of a perfect “decisive moment”––the perfect confluence of event and formal arrangements that best crystallize a subject. Content here is up to you, and you may concentrate on one of the temporal modes above, or try several different approaches. Avoid predictability, cliché, and easy, overly obvious solutions. As always, please hand in contacts of all the negatives you produce for this assignment at critique time.

The Photographic Document

Use your photographic skills to describe an event, process, or subject. For this project, you will have to use your camera in a quick, intuitive manner to address the theme of your shooting. To maximize your chances of producing intriguing images, you will want to use more film than usual, and edit your material carefully. Think about the various documentary photographers we discussed in class, and recall their varied image making approaches and strategies. 

Low Light Photography

For this project, use the various techniques emphasized in lecture to record images in dim lighting conditions.  Remember to bracket exposures, consider reciprocity effects, and use a tripod.  Thematically, you should attempt to transcend the obvious “spooky pictures” tendency this type of shooting lends itself to.  Almost as a given, your images will be dramatic.  Can you think of ways to add nuance, subtly, and surprise to the fraught quality of nighttime photographs?

Final Project

This is a self-directed assignment. The only restriction is to produce a body of images that relate to one another thematically, conceptually, or in terms of approach. (In other words, this should not be your “five greatest hits” of the next couple of weeks. To get rolling, if you like, you could use one of the prior assignments as a starting point for you work. In any event, you should select an idea or subject that genuinely interests you,  a topic towards which you will direct the image making skills you have learned this semester.

Time

Using any of the various technical, compositional, and/or formal techniques you have learned so far in the class, produce images that in some manner deal with the phenomenon of photographic time. Recall the different types of temporal issues mentioned in the lecture. Pictures may be very time specific, or seemingly nonspecific and “timeless.” Our experience of a photograph may be tethered to a specific historical era. Some photographs rely on a sense of a perfect “decisive moment”––the perfect confluence of event and formal arrangements that best crystallize a subject. Content here is up to you, and you may concentrate on one of the temporal modes above, or try several different approaches. Avoid predictability, cliché, and easy, overly obvious solutions. As always, please hand in contacts of all the negatives you produce for this assignment at critique time.

Final Project

This is a self-directed assignment. The only restriction is to produce a body of images that relate to one another thematically, conceptually, or in terms of approach. (In other words, this should not be your “five greatest hits” of the next couple of weeks. To get rolling, if you like, you could use one of the prior assignments as a starting point for you work. In any event, you should select an idea or subject that genuinely interests you,  a topic towards which you will direct the image making skills you have learned this semester.

Final Project

This is a self-directed assignment. The only restriction is to produce a body of images that relate to one another thematically, conceptually, or in terms of approach. (In other words, this should not be your “five greatest hits” of the next couple of weeks. To get rolling, if you like, you could use one of the prior assignments as a starting point for you work. In any event, you should select an idea or subject that genuinely interests you,  a topic towards which you will direct the image making skills you have learned this semester.