Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Explores black and white darkroom photographic processes, techniques and concepts. Addresses historical and contemporary issues specific to photography. Develops photographic practices using peer critique and self-reflection. Requires access to a manual, SLR (single-lens reflex) film camera. Prerequisites: WR 115, RD 115 and MTH 20 or equivalent placement test scores. Audit available.

Upon successful completion students should be able to:• Understand, interpret and enjoy black and white photography from past to present within a local as well as global context at a beginning level.• Ask introductory level questions, identify ideas and issues, and develop and use a basic vocabulary when participating in critical dialogue about black and white photography with others.• Begin to find and develop creative ways to solve artistic and conceptual problemsusing a variety of environmentally sustainable photographic strategies at a basic level.• Create photographic work that is personally significant & fulfilling.• Navigate challenges & opportunities of working in a community photographic studio and laboratory.• Start to integrate the understanding that any photographic image is created and interpreted through the lens of both the artist and the viewer’s own personal, social and cultural filters.

Through completion of regular photographic assignments, students will display their competence related to the course's intended outcomes. Understanding of the camera functions, film exposure, the film-development process, and printing techniques will be progressively monitored. Appropriateness of depth-of-field and shutter-speed decisions, and student's judgment concerning their use of light, graphic, and compositional effects will be reviewed during scheduled group critiques. Instructors may also choose to evaluate students' critical and interpretive abilities by requiring written assignments, or oral presentations, regarding photographic work. Student assessment will culminate with the presentation of a final portfolio at the end of the term.

The course will include, but not be limited to, the following: •Knowledge of the camera: film loading, light metering systems, and the exposure controls (manual and automatic): shutter speed, which controls motion, and aperture, which controls the depth-of-field.•Knowledge of film: film speed, or the sensitivity of film to light (known as ISO, ASA, or E.I.), and how to test for the proper film speed; film processing, film chemistry, and how to manipulate negative contrast through development.•Knowledge of negative printing and enlarging: enlarger mechanics, including use of negative holders print easels, and grain focusers; exposing film onto photographic paper, for contact (proof) sheets, and enlargements, and evaluating exposures for density and contrast; further print manipulation through dodging and burning, and use of contrast filters.•Finishing the print: spotting and retouching the final print; dry mounting and over matting; other options, including books, screens, and mixed media may be discussed.•Additional print content (optional): toning; multiple printing; double exposure; sabatier effect/solarizing; adding of text, multiple images; sequencing.•Aesthetic issues: use of graphic techniques, through control of contrast and density; effective use of focus, depth-of-field, and stopping/blurring motion; use of the rectangle, the edge, and cropping; line, form, shape, texture, rhythm, and space.•Photographic history and practitioners: presentation, through slides, lectures, and videos, of periods, artists, and technology, issues in the history of photography. In particular, photographic genres, including landscape and nature, documentary, reportage, abstraction, portrait, self-portrait, and candid photography, will be discussed. Emphasis will be on how historical concerns effect, and led to, contemporary issues, artists, and techniques.