Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

• Solve problems in the art making process using a variety of strategies for making prints, which demonstrate command of introductory level processes, techniques and materials in darkroom photography.
• Participate in a critical dialog about ideas and issues in darkroom photography using industry terminology and applying self-critiquing skills.
• Interpret and critically evaluate photographs from different cultures to initiate a relationship with photography and its connection to the viewer, ideas and artists of the past and present
• Express connections to personal experiences through work in the medium of darkroom photography and its chemical processes with awareness of the standards and practices established by both contemporary and historical artists.

Students will engage in studio work during and outs of class time to critically engage with the practical studio application of skills, techniques and concepts in addition to lectures and presentations, demonstrations, critiques, group discussions and activities.

• Engage in studio work during and outside of class time
• Develop photographic projects and prints that are aesthetically and formally challenging and demonstrate the student’s evolution through both ideas and process.
• Demonstrate sound photographic technique and safe and efficient studio habits with respect to the communal environment
• Participate in discussions and critiques. Take an active role and make contributions applying concepts and terminology used in the discipline.
• Evaluate both technical approaches and conceptual directions in photographs through comprehensive responses, critique, self reflection, written assignments and peer review.

Themes

• Visual communication
• Contextual awareness

Concepts

• Formal and aesthetic considerations
• Connections between form, content and meaning
• Process, technique and material choices

Issues

• Understand the photographic aesthetic, the specific possibilities and limitations inherent to photography within a darkroom practice, its processes and strategies.
• Environmental awareness related to materials and proper disposal of waste
• Personal expression through the medium of darkroom photography
• Historical knowledge of film photography
• Awareness of the wide spectrum of photography’s influence and impact on daily life

Skills

Learn methodologies for designing and completing photographic prints

• Strategies for generating ideas
• Image generation - bridging ideas with darkroom processes to create images of both formal and conceptual power
• Technical knowledge of the camera, lens and manual exposure controls
• Aesthetic effects of the use of lens, shutter and aperture for creative control
• Essentials of Lighting; design and modification
• Film - exposing, processing and enlarging the negatives to create photographic prints
• Printing - demonstrated sound darkroom technique to enlarge and print negatives
• Curating, selecting and arranging prints
• Print finishing,  presentation and preservation strategies.

Critique and self reflection strategies for evaluating prints

Studio safety

•     Demonstration of sound darkroom practices with regard to chemical, environmental and     personal safety