Further progress on students' paintings ...

These are the paintings that we've been working on for about two weeks.  You can see some of them are either finished or close to, and some of them are still earlier on in the stages of development.  I encourage my students to not impose an arbitrary deadline on their work.  An imposed fake schedule is something I don't want them to be thinking about.  I submit to them that they should develop the painting based on what it needs, not on some other standard (including, time).  That way, they are focused on what is necessary to developing the image, and become more independent when they are encouraged to make decisions on how the image should be developed, as opposed to having a "schedule" imposed on them.

Beginning and intermediate Photography

When I begin a course in Introduction to Photography, I’m always struck by how little my students understand about film/chemical process photography.  I don’t need to tell readers of this blog that digital photography – and digital images – have become so common-place and accessible, that the term “photographer” has lost meaning and relevance.  So often, students are so used to the ease and the throw-away aspects of shooting digital photography, that they are both mystified and amazed at how different film photography is from their previous experience with digital images. 

I introduce students to photography by using film because I feel it has a uniqueness and richness that digital photography does not have.  Similar to my reaction to pulling a print from an etched copper plate, I still am personally still enthralled when I expose and print contact sheets, expose and make prints from a captured moment in time on a sliver of plastic.  The process is still magical to me, and it also re-enforces and encourages both myself and my students to become more sensitive to the media and to the possibilities of that media.  I have discovered that students who are accustomed to using Photoshop to manipulate images on the computer, become more sensitive to the decisions they are making when making a photographic image – both when shooting and when working in the darkroom.  Plus, I still see that same amazement when they shoot and process their first roll of film, and make a perfect exposed print in the darkroom.  Teaching them to manipulate the camera – simply by using focus, aperture settings and shutter speed – gives them yet another tool to explore their ideas with.  It empowers them with an increased technical knowledge, and access to yet another media. 

I say this not as a rebuttal of those that are photographers that use digital photography – I count myself among them.  I just think that introducing photography in this way to my students opens up new possibilities to them, as well as it gives them a greater understanding of their shared history with photographers from the past 150 years.  I consistently show them works from contemporary photographers (Aperture and Blindspot are common sources), as well as works from books in our library (Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Alfred Stieglitz, Margaret Bourke-White, Jacob Riis, Ben Shahn and countless more) that reinforce the connection between contemporary practices in photography with the history of the medium.

I start out the semester as you might imagine: Basic camera function, film processing methods, basic darkroom techniques (making a contact sheet and basic print from a negative).  But, we then quickly move into gradually more sophisticated directions with the media, such as:

-       How to show movement and sequence.

-       How to become increasingly sensitive to composition and the use of depth of field (how much space, or what object) is in focus to direct the viewer in a very specific manner.

-       The tradition of portraiture and how the portrait can be used as a metaphor or symbol for so many peripheral subjects, or as a way to communicate more introspective or vulnerable aspects of the subject.

-       How to use composite imagery and contrast filters to achieve an image that is both descriptive/naturalistic and abstract in nature.

-       How to use lighting as a tool to illustrate and use mood, space, texture and movement in the image, as well as a way to change the context and to shift the meaning of the subject matter.

-       How to compose the shoot so that darkroom methods (push processing, contrast filters, dodging and burning, cropping) can be used in a very sensitive manner.

-       How to use larger format cameras (Mamiya RB67 and several 4x5 negative cameras) and a portable light meter to become increasingly sensitive to composition, use of depth of field, and richer use and depiction of light to create images with a more cinematic richness and range.

It is invigorating for me to be able to get the students to a point when they are confident with the basic technical aspects of film photography that they become “antsy” about moving to the next project in the class.  This also allows me to have conversations with them about their work, as opposed to me just giving them technical lectures.

Painting class, after one week ...

You can compare the paintings in the previous post to the same ones shown here.  The students are working in an aggressive, confident manner, and on a (mostly) larger scale than before.

Preliminary Drawings, Beginning Stages ...

As I've stated in a previous post, I encourage students to develop preliminary drawings as an integral part of the process of making art.  I tell my students that the drawings should not be treated as second class.  They are as much of a valid artistic statement on their own.  I try to get the students to think beyond the categories of "painting" and "drawing."  Either the drawing/painting works as a dynamic, intriguing image, or it doesn't.  I want student to appreciate that they shouldn't be constrained by the category, or by whatever their expectation is of how the media works.  Even though each student should become sensitive to the inherent qualities of each media, I would like to them to go where their ideas take them, and to control the situation, not be controlled by it.  I constantly encourage my students to work through their problems, and to understand that the history of the development of the image IS the image.  If my students are only interested in the finished "product," than they lose patience with the development, and resort to shortcuts that cause them to lose focus on the essentials, foundations, and structure of the image, based on a true analysis and response that reflects their idea and philosophy.

I want my students to also be  mentally aggressive and focused while they are working.  Much of what I talk about during class goes back to the fundamentals that have been presented in previous classes.  You will notice in the photographs below that the students have become increasingly confident and sophisticated in their approach, and have really applied so much from their studio experience from the last semester. I feel that they have become increasingly sensitive to what I see as the true essentials of the image - a development of the description of space, sensitivity to the proportion and gesture of the figure, use of sections/planes of color to describe form, and a sensitivity to the overall composition.  I often encourage my students to stay focused on what what matters in the image - to not get side tracked by the surface, cursory and random aspects of the image.  The work you see by the students below is the first class session working on these paintings, after completing sketches and more resolved drawings from observation.  You'll notice that the students have the drawings next to them to work from.  I don't want them to copy the drawings - as I have said before, I would like to them to appreciate that the drawings are a valid artistic statement in their own right, and do not "need" to be added to.  I simply submit that the drawings can be another level in the development of the painting, as a part of a body of work, a series of images that are now a fully resolved way of understanding an image.  This suite of images then becomes a richer and more engaged response, one that offers more to the viewer - a more thorough window into how the student/artist is thinking and growing.