Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Upon completion  the course students should be able to:

• Solve artistic and conceptual problems with an increased understanding of the medium and a variety of strategies for making photographic images and prints, which demonstrate command of foundational level processes, techniques and materials.
• Participate in critical dialog about ideas and issues in photography using appropriate terminology.
• Interpret and critically evaluate prints from many cultures to initiate a life-long process of studying the diverse perspectives of the human experience.
• Express connections to personal experience through photography with the awareness of the standards and practices established by both contemporary and historical artists.

Students will engage in studio work during and out 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.

• Actively engage in studio work and complete all projects and homework assignments on time.
• Develop photographic images, prints and projects that are aesthetically and formally challenging and demonstrate the students’s evolution through their ideas and processes.
• Demonstrate sound foundational level photographic technique and safe and efficient studio habits with respect to the communal environment and equipment.
• Participate in discussions and critiques. Take an active role and make contributions applying concepts and terms 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
• Photographic image and digital medium as a tool for expression
•     Developing methodologies for composing and producing photographs.
• Explore new directions in digital photography as well as connections between popular and fine art use of the photographic image and new directions in conceptual use of the medium.

Concepts

• Formal and aesthetic considerations
• Content and meaning - aesthetics in service of visual communication
• Consideration of materials, technique and process
• Introduction to collaboration, mentoring, community and service through Photography.

Issues

• Building independence and autonomy in students critical thinking and problem solving skills relative to photographic practices
• Awareness and exploration of photography’s influence and impact on daily life and how historical works effect and led to contemporary artists, issues and techniques.
• Better understanding of digital photography, the specific possibilities and challenges inherent to the medium and the reasons for their exploration
• Better understand the unique position photography has played in history and visual culture; the specific possibilities and considerations related to the making of the photograph in multiple fields and subjects

Skills

Intermediate methods and strategies for developing and completing photographic images

• Manipulation of camera controls over focus, exposure and image capture technologies
• Exploration of digital medium as a tool for creativity
• Lighting design, modification and introduction to principles of strobe and speed lights
• Strategies for generating and evolving ideas
• Processes for printing and displaying images
• Curating images and prints
• Best practices for print presentation, matting, mounting, exhibition
• Principles and practices for archiving, storage and preservation

Digital Tools

• Foundational workflow for digital asset management
• Advanced practices in evaluating, editing and preparing images for output using industry standard software (such as Adobe CC/Photoshop)
• Foundational color management and print lab workflows and considerations for different studio and viewing environments
• Processes for printing with consideration for scale, medium, and materials
• Advanced editing, compositing, layering and masking techniques and workflows using industry standard software
• Processes of using alternative digital tools, such as scanners, laser cutters, and other available technologies to explore digital photography
• Introduction of hand made processes, traditions and techniques integrated with digital tools to survey contemporary photographic possibilities

Critique and self-reflection strategies for evaluating prints and images

Studio Safety