Art 3027 - Photo Arts ll

Fall 2011

Thursday 13:00 to 17:50

Prerequisite: Art 3026

Instructor - Don Gill 

Office - w830

Phone  329-2091

Web page - people.uleth.ca/~don.gill Refer to the web site for updated class information

Email - don.gill@uleth.ca

Office hours - TBA or by arrangement.

 

This course builds on Photo-arts l in introducing photography as a component of a critical art practice. This class will introduce other formats other than standard 35mm such as the medium format 120mm roll film camera and large format 4X5 cameras.

Some of the material covered will be:

- Critical issues in photography, both contemporary and historical.

- Lens-based imaging as a contemporary art form and as visual culture.

- Digital darkroom.
- The use of hand held light meters, lighting, print finishing, alternative presentation formats.

- Advanced camera operation and exposure – medium and large format.

- Darkroom practices for medium and large format film.

- Research methods

 

A media scrapbook is central requirement of this class. This is an exercise in visual culture as well as a class journal and photographic sketchbook. Photographers experience the world as a visual place so therefore an analysis of visual culture is a foundation of an artist's experience. This scrapbook is an analysis of the individual visual experience in a non-sentimental, non-narcissistic manner. In addition to photographs you will be taking on an ongoing basis outside of other assignments visual material collected from the mass media and a minimum of two newspaper or magazine articles a week that relate to visual or political culture will be inserted. They should be dated and the sources recorded. The scrapbook can be any size and shape except that transparent plastic sheets are not acceptable only paper pages, as it should be treated as an artist’s book rather than a photo album or portfolio. This scrapbook should be started in the first week of class and worked on weekly as it will be evaluated throughout the term as well as handed in at the end and graded as part of the student's portfolio.

All assignments should be kept in a separate portfolio for evaluation at the end of the term.

There will be a presentation on a photographer or photographers who use large or medium format as a primary format. This will be an in-depth oral presentation accompanied by a powerpoint or other visual material. More than one academic source should be used, this means scholarly books or journals. The internet can be valuable as a source of images but your primary information should be scholarly sources. Start researching library resources far in advance in order to choose your topic. Procrastinating till late in the term and then finding out that there are no resources to support your topic is a recipe for failure. When choosing your topic allow time to look outside the university library. Although this is primarily an oral presentation the written component complete with proper citations and bibliography will be handed in with the powerpoint (or OpenOffice presentation) file.

Attendance and punctuality are very important. The class as a whole suffers when some participants are habitually late or absent, however you should let me know if there is a reason for regular tardiness i.e. coming from a previous class on the other side of campus etc.

 

Grading:

Attendance and participation

10%

 

Portfolio and scrapbook

20%

Presentation

15%

Assignments

55%

Total

100%

       

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List of Materials

 

-         Camera - 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera (SLR) with built in meter. Automatic cameras are not acceptable unless they can be operated completely manually. 35mm SLR cameras can be rented through the department for a small fee and medium format, large format and digital cameras are available for checkout on a daily basis.

 

There are some supplies available for purchase through the bookstore.

- Film - 125 (100) and 400 ISO film will be used primarily but other speed film will be introduced. 35mm, 120, and 4X5 formats.

- Photographic Paper - 8x10 Ilford multigrade photographic paper in pearl or glossy surface. A box of 100 sheets is recommended to start but the paper is also available in 25 sheet packs.

- 35 mm, 120mm and 4X5 negative sleeves

- Can of compressed air or blower brush

- Scissors and cheap can opener

- Hand towel and apron or lab smock

- Chamois cloth (recommended)

- Mounting supplies as needed

- Scrapbook supplies as discussed in class.

Photo ll supplies

 

- One box 4x5 sheet film, Ilford HP5 400  25 sheets.

- 7rolls 120 film Ilford HP5 400

- 7rolls 120 fil Ilford FP4 125

- 1 pkg 4X5 neg film sheets

- 1 pkg 120 roll film neg sheets

- 1 box nitrile gloves

 -1 can compressed air

- 1 box 8X10 paper

- min 2ft. dry mount tissue

- 1 gray card

 

 

Sept 08 – Intro and optical viewing intro. 4x5 pinhole.

Ass. -Start Scrapbook and finish pinhole. Purchase photo materials.
Sept 15 – Finish pinhole and demo exposure and large format film development.
Ass. Initial prints.
Sept 22 – advanced large format. Intro to medium format.
Ass. Adventure of a photographer 1.
Sept 29. – medium format film development.
Ass. Shoot roll of film – series on a theme. (depth of field). Presentation topic due.
Oct 06. – Film development, contact printing. Intro enlarging for large and medium format.
Ass. Adventure of a photographer 2.
Oct 13 - Presentations
Oct  20 – Presentations .Assignment TBA
Oct 27 - Adventure of a photographer 3
Nov 03 – Large/medium format and digital intro
Nov 10 – TBA
Nov 17 – Print finishing
Nov 24 – Adventure of a photographer 4
Dec 01 – Review. Scrapbook. Shoot and develop

Dec 08  - Studio time for final project.
Dec 15 - final proj.