Film Photography in the Digital World

3 Credits.

In this photography course, we will learn to use traditional 35mm film cameras to photograph with both color and black-and-white film stock. The film shot in this course will be outsourced to a professional photography lab to both develop our film and provide us with high-resolution digital scans. Demonstrations in Adobe software will provide us with the technical skills to organize, edit, and adjust our scans to make beautifully crafted files and inkjet prints. Various paper surfaces will be explored to show how substrate choices emphasize the textural qualities, tonal range, and color palette that film offers. We will study a wide range of topics in photography, such as culture, identity, family, politics, environmentalism, history, and other themes in art. We will also examine the invention of photography and how the technical evolution of the camera has advanced the medium into new realms. 35mm film cameras are available on loan for the semester. Please note that this is not a traditional darkroom course; therefore, there will be no hand-developing of film or traditional darkroom printing. Attendance for the first class is mandatory. Course approval will be evaluated following registration in SIS.