Semester of a Photographer, Part 2
(Here's part one)
Once again all my classes were 3 hours (except Studio which was four) and this time I had class five days a week. So here we go again.
1. 21st Century History
The first of my humanities courses, this course aimed to answer some seemingly simple questions about human civilization and how we got here. Things like - why does most of the world speak English? Or why the Industrial Revolution began in England ; and how did they manage to conquer a big chunk of the world? It also encompassed current issues such as climate change and the evolving relationships between developed and developing countries and the powers that are shaping them (a big part of the study was based on multinational corporations).
10 assignments and a final project. Part of what I did for my finals is here.
2. The Myth of Self-Creationism in American Literature
Yes, the course is as impressive as it's title. This course was all about the myth of the American dream and how it has manifested itself in American literature right from the start. Readings (and there was a lot of reading) ranged from Thomas Paine to Saul Bellow to William Faulkner to Ralph Waldo Emerson to WIlla Cather to Fitzgerald to - oh you know what I mean.
Two exams. Fantastic course, the professor was extremely engaging so he managed to pull it off.
3. Critical Eye
Probably the most intellectually stimulating of my courses, this one is a mix between photographic theory and philosophy. It deals with how we absorb, interpret and understand photographs. It's a crash course on the photograph as an object, how it functions and how we engage with it. There was a lot of Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes thrown into this course, obviously. Class was sometimes at MoMA, galleries or museums.
Three (challenging) papers and a midterm exam.
4. Digital Photo
Ah finally, here come the more photo-photo-photo courses where I can show you work (you wouldn't want to read my dense lengthy papers from the above three). This is the intermediate Photoshop class that aimed at stepping up our digital skills. My final portfolio is the first group of images at the end of the post.
There was a midterm and a sprinkle of in-class assignments.
5. Critique
Quite simply the class of all classes. The central focus of the semester always lies in Crit class. This is the class where we work on a project for an entire semester and bring in work each week to receive (constructive) feedback and further develop the idea. It's the second portfolio below.
6. Studio
Perhaps the most fun class of all. What's better than learning how to shoot beautiful photos in the studio? Models, lights, cameras, all flying about and great pictures coming out of it. It's the last portfolio at the end of the post.
That's it folks.
Compared to the previous edition of this post I haven't punched in the blood, sweat and tears that has to go in behind all of the work up here. It's the finished product that counts this time around.
Welcome to 2010.
