Experimental Photography: Cameraless to Polaroid, Form to Content

3 units

These days, everyone is a photographer, right? But how does that image snapped with your smartphone arrive on your screen? As technology marches forward, we have images literally at our fingertips, yet the actual process of producing the picture is, ironically, more elusive. In this course, we will dive into experimental processes and examine how physically making the picture can affect the content of that picture. As you craft images, ideas become tied to process and suggest new directions, strategies and subjects. We will begin with cameraless techniques, such as the photogram and cyanotype; we will investigate the principle of the camera obscura; we will test out rudimentary cameras such as the pinhole and disposable models; and we will experiment with printing techniques such as Polaroid and Xerox transfer, examining artists using these various techniques along the way. As we move through the semester, students will learn the various ways that light can create images, and they will begin to find their own particular voice within these mechanizations and create original work.