ARTX316 Intermediate Photography

Spring Quarter 2018, Kalamazoo College

Richard Koenig, Associate Professor

Meeting Time: Tuesday & Thursday 8:30 to 11:30 AM

Meeting Place: Rooms 122 and 103 of the Light Fine Arts Building

Class Homepage: http://people.kzoo.edu/~rkoenig/educator/photo/ph_dig.html

Office Hours: Tuesday 3:30 to 5:00 PM and Wednesday 1:30 to 3:00 PM (or by appointment)

Office Location: Light Fine Arts Building Room 203, Phone: 337.7003

Cell Phone (emergency only, please): 269.270.8110

Classroom Phone: 337.7399

E-Mail: rkoenig@kzoo.edu

Course Goals

Having completed varying amounts of photography course work prior to this class, you will expand your knowledge and skills in Intermediate Photography by working on an individual project for the duration of the term. To help you focus on conceptual concerns for your work, you will write a proposal at the beginning of the term, a midterm reflection, and an artist statement at the conclusion. Your completed project will be due at the end of the term—presented during our official final exam time slot during finals week. Look closely at the schedule and make certain you want to be in this course—you will have to be productive with limited structure (four working critiques and a final critique). If this will not work for you, please drop the class prior to the end of the week.

Class/Lab Time

As stated above, you will attend and bring work to four working critiques prior to the final critique. It is very important that you show work in progress as we go along; you must be self-motivated to do your work during non-class times (though you may show me image files or prints during my office hours). It is essential that you produce for every working critique—this timely showing of work will ensure that you get the most out of this course.

Project

The term is very short and you need to land with your feet running. Pick a project that interests you, but one that is achievable. I will attempt to meet with you to discuss your ideas sometime during the first week in my office (e-mail me for this)—but this may be difficult to a large cohort of intermediate students this term.

Proposal

At our first critique, in addition to some work samples, please bring (hard copy) a one-page (300 words) proposal listing up to three possible ideas for projects on which you will work this term. You will not necessarily be held to this plan, but putting your ideas on paper coerces one to really ponder one’s ideas.

Evaluation

Merely completing the requirements stated above, bringing in work and attending every critique, will not necessarily ensure a good evaluation for this course. Assuming a certain level of technical expertise, I will be more concerned with the idea behind your project, depth of exploration and risk taking, and the appropriateness of your chosen medium or form to get that idea across. Here is a breakdown of how your grade will be determined…

10% Project(s) Proposal (300 words)—due by the end of week one

10% Working Critique 1

10% Working Critique 2

10% First Half Participation

10% First Half Reflection (300 words)—due by the end of week five

10% Working Critique 3

10% Working Critique 4

20% Final Project Work—Includes Artist Statement (300 words)

10% Second Half Participation

Disability

Any student with a disability who needs an accommodation or other assistance in this course should make an appointment to speak with me.

Attendance

Attendance is mandatory for the times listed on the schedule—see “critique of intermediate photography” on the attached schedule. Since you are asked to come so infrequently, any absences are truly frowned upon and will lower your grade substantially.

In-Class Participation

This is very different than attendance—it is in addition to it, if you like. Good participation means one actively and candidly contributes to the conversation during critiques, while also being supportive of your peers. It means one arrives to the classroom on time, is prepared, and shows by means of facial expression and body language that one is following what is going on. It means, quite simply, that one contributes to a positive class atmosphere. Along those lines, one important note about critiques: we criticize the work, not the person making the work. Please turn off phones, do not email, Facebook, text, or twitter during structured class time.

Lab Fee and Costs

There is no lab fee for this class. Working digitally, one will probably have to spend (at a minimum) between $50 and $80 for ink-jet printing paper at the Center for New Media.

FABLAB—Saving Your Work

The iMac computers in the FABLAB will save your work on that particular computer. But you should ideally save all of your work in at least two places as you go along. The second place beyond the computer on which you work could be a flash drive and/or in the cloud—for this you can open a free account with Drop Box. At the end of the term remember to take all of our files from the computer as these files will be permanently removed. Please do not eat or drink in the FABLAB.

Equipment

A digital single lens reflex camera is most useful for this course. In any event one should have manual control of exposure (aperture and shutter speed) with whatever camera they use. Point-and-shoot cameras, even if they have manual control of exposure, are not considered ideal for advanced work. A small number of DSLR cameras are available for checkout, but this is not assured, so if you have your own equipment, please bring it to class. Tripods can be checked-out from curricular support in the library.

Supplies

Assuming one works digitally, here is a list of the few supplies that you will need…

· Printing at the Center for New Media (letter-sized prints are $1.00 each)

· Large envelopes (9” by 12”) to hand in your assignments

Note: normally I might support you working analog, but due to Alternative Photographic Processes running concurrently with this class, it really will not be possible.

Project & Artist Statement Example

In taking extremely close photographs of various regions of the body, I would like to demonstrate that it is possible for innumerable parts to become relatively unrecognizable shapes while still maintaining their assumed functions

Although we live in our bodies and are saturated with images of other bodies, I feel that most of us rarely observe the capabilities and eccentricities of the human form.

By presenting it bit by bit in enlarged images, I hope to get across the idea that we are less aware of ourselves then we often believe. The body, as well as being functional, is a compilation of shapes, textures and abstract images.

In the end, while I do not display this work in the shape of a person, I have all the components there: belly button, toes, fingers, skin, hair, face etc. to represent the entire human form. In presenting these images in a straight line, I am ideally extending more agency to the viewer.

By representing the body in a way we are unused to seeing it, up-close and disordered, one can interpret for one’s self what precisely is being displayed.

Sadie Gallop

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