Studio Work of the Week
thoughts and thinkings by azhar chougle
Filed under
college
Studio Work of the Week
Comments [1]
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.
Comments [1]
The Contact Sheet Project
This is a photographic project I've been wanting to execute for quite a while actually. As my critique teacher made me notice it took all of 6 months for the lingering stagnating idea to become what you see now.
Check out the series here, though it isn't complete just yet, and will remain an ongoing passive project.
I also have done another mini-series this semester which I'll be putting up on my photoblog first before uploading it to my portfolio.
Comments [0]
Semester of a Photographer
I've been asked many a time - what exactly do you do at college?
Since most (alright, all) of my friends have absolutely nothing to do with the arts it seems weird to them to study photography full time for four years. I mean, after all, anyone can take good pictures (right?)
Do I have exams? Do I have textbooks? Hell, what do you do all day?
Finger-paint.
But anyway, since I'm so sick of being asked what why and how I thought I'd outline a semester of work and then create an URL to this page and just slap it onto whoever asks next. And maybe it'd help anyone who plans on studying photography in the future.
This is the first year, so it's all about 'foundation' and basics.
1. Photography Workshop
This Monday-morning 9AM class goes on till 3PM in the afternoon.
The first 3 hours are spent Darkrooming. In the first semester, it was B&W and the second, color. When working with film and light-sensitive paper, it can take up to an hour and a half to make a perfect print. I don't want to explain the entire process in the darkroom, just know that it does, it's a lot of work and takes a lot of skill to get it done right. Just imagine making a photograph without any digital intervention and you have enough of an idea on how complex it must be.
The next three hours are spent in critique.
The bulk of this class is spent outside the classroom or the darkroom. It's coming up with a project and executing it. Working on a new segment of it every week. It requires a lot of thinking and a lot of time. Especially since I had to travel far and wide to do my project (sometimes three hours each way). So just creating work for this class takes up a good few days of the week (and if it doesn't turn out right it has to be done all over again). And then printing it before critique. I usually bring in ten prints, and those can't be made in the three hours before class.
Here's some first semester work :
And some second semester work - the last two (see the full series here).
2. Foundation Symposium
This was the second Monday course I had from 6PM - 9PM.
This course was divided into six (I think?) parts. Each part covered a different topic. Examples were career prospect introductions and industry standards, video, photographs as art objects etc.
I ended up creating a lot of fun stuff in this course.
In Video :
Drumbone from Azhar Chougle on Vimeo.
And working with text (see the full series here) :
I put in more than the required effort for this class so ended up spending quite a bit of free time working on
javascripts/tiny_mce/themes/advanced/langs/en.js?1251442053" type="text/javascript"> next week's project.
3. History of Photography
I really liked this course even though it has the word 'history' in it. It was a pretty thorough two-semester long introduction to how photography got going and how it's evolved into current-day what-it-is. We got to see a lot of amazing work this class, that was education in itself. And on a field trip we got to see real photographs from the 1840s.
There was a textbook. So there was studying and exams. Two exams (mid-term and final) along with a few papers and a creative project. So it was quite a bit of work but fun work. A bit of mugging for the exam but after all it is history
so it's excusable.
Was my only class on Tuesday from Noon to 3.
4. Literature
Hah, this was all reading and writing. We read some particularly strange things such as Candide and Whitman and Rumi (I liked none) but the professor was an ecstatic jumpy fellow. And we looked at a bit of art and did a bit of thinking so it was all good.
His essays were really challenging so that was what made this course for me. Relating art and literature to current events and things like that. Pretty complex stuff. Especially that really long research paper at the end of it.
5. Digital Imaging (second semester only) :
This class was basics of Photoshop. Being self-taught in most of it already I didn't learn much here, but I did pick up a few neat tricks and was forced to work in ways I wouldn't have normally. There were no tests or exams, instead weekly assignments, which for me, culminated in some (personally rewarding) and excellent work. Examples below.
6. Intro Photo (first semester only) :
This was a course to make sure that we know everything that we should before going on to advanced things like studio. Explaining the basics of photography and dejumbling things like ASA and what film is made of and how the darkroom chemicals work.
This course also had an awesome professor who would bring in amazing cameras and show us how to use them. Like Mamiya's and Hassy's - even a view camera. So it was a lot to learn and there were only two tests which were fairly simple for me.
--
So with all the courses, work and my additional travel, concerts and such it became a good time. The next two semesters are going to be a big step up from the past year. I have studio, and two difficult humanities courses along with the usual. And work and gym.
So I hope that sufficiently illustrates what being a full-time photography student is like. All the classes above were three hours, by the way. So I'd have a straight 9-9 day sometimes with a few hours in between for a nap.
And for those who didn't know jack about my work you got a nice taste of it up there.
(I study at the School of Visual Arts. It's my second year this fall)
Comments [5]
Comments [2]