Foundations of Photography: Digital Practice
Course Description
Summary
This course offers an overview of foundational tools and techniques in digital photographic practice and aims to help students find new sources of inspiration, deepen their creative work, and enhance their ability to present it. Students will learn to shoot with digital SLR cameras using manual settings, manage, process, and manipulate digital image files, properly scan negatives, and produce digital portfolios and high quality inkjet prints.
They will be challenged to create new work within short time periods in response to prompts, and to develop and revise an independent project, in the process becoming more comfortable contributing to critiques with peers and receiving feedback on their work. In addition, students will build their awareness of historical and contemporary artists and the breadth of possibilities for the medium, as they practice making observations, thinking critically, speaking, and writing about photography. Short readings and videos will provide additional context and encourage reflection on the impact of recent technological and social changes.
This course will be taught remotely and class time will be both synchronous and asynchronous; we will meet together for group discussions and critiques, and students will also complete work on their own time: individually, in small groups, and in one-on-one meetings with the instructor. Some opportunities for in-person meetings are also anticipated.
Assignments will be given on a regular basis, and self-directed final projects will allow students to creatively express their technical skills as they explore their own questions and concerns.
Please note that a Mac-compatible external hard drive and inkjet photo paper are required for this course, and regular access to the digital photo lab on campus is expected. Students do not need to have their own DSLR cameras or printers.
Learning Outcomes
- Develop/improve their skills in shooting, editing, printing, and managing digital photographs
- Find new sources of inspiration, deepen their creative work and enhance their ability to present it
- Create new work within short time periods in response to prompts
- Create, develop, and revise a sustained independent project
- Practice contributing to critiques with peers and receiving feedback on their work
- Build awareness of historical and contemporary artists and the breadth of possibilities for the medium
- Make observations, think critically, speak, and write about photography
- Actively reflect on their own questions and relationship to the ideas in the course, and on their creative and learning processes, and make connections to other areas of interest
- Recognize their shared role in cultivating an engaging, respectful, and productive learning community