Projects: Here's one from Alec Soth

Portraits From a Job-Starved City

Each photo has an accompanying audio statement: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/01/23/magazine/rockford.html

Photographs by ALEC SOTH. Interviews by MICHAEL CATANO.

Lighting and Bring Work for Home Design Show

Last week I mentioned that your work could be exhibited in the Home Design Expo and you'd be helping the MJC Interior Design class decorate their installation. Please bring work that would be suitable for such an event. They asked originally for Modesto-ish looking views but later opened that up to anything, particularly but not limited to black and white, that would look good in a living room interior. Please bring framed and unframed work for consideration.

And, if you haven't noticed, our printed schedule is not accurate. Tomorrow we'll look at the lighting assignment #1 in class for a short time and then I will have some diptych's to show and a method for printing them in the darkroom. In the meantime, please plan and pay for our field trip to Pier 24 and other activities in San Francisco.

Our revised schedule is below:

W 2/16 Discussion /Demo of lighting equipment and Assignment 1

M 2/21 Holiday – no class

W 2/23 Meet in class – Diptych Demo; Make blogs – look at Lighting Assignment 1

M 2/28 Required Open Lab

W 3/2 San Francisco Field Trip

M 3/7 Required Open Lab

W 3/9 Dyptich prints Assignment due in class

Photo by Doug Smith

Lighting Assignment 1: Magic Light and Silhouette

After seeing examples shown in class, make photographs using at-home lighting. Find a "studio" in your home that you can construct an area with a light background and lighting arrangement. See the notes in the class handout for advice regarding doing this assignment.

Set A:

1. In the first pictures, use an object with an interesting contour shape. Set up a bright light to show a bright background so that the object in front of it will be a black or near-black silhouette. Make several images of different angles and exposures.
2. In your studio, light your interesting object with the shutter open (use a middle ƒ/stop setting) by "painting" with a flashlight or other small directed light source. Experiment and take several photos with several settings. Also see this site about painting with light.

Set B:

1. Photograph a setting outside that has a dark area and a light area in the background and use your flashlight (you can add colored gels to add color to your picture) to paint objects in the foreground. You're encouraged to use models or other identifiable elements in your photograph. Students who have taken Art 175 can use your flash to illuminate larger areas of your night scene. I encourage you to use models or interesting foreground elements in these settings.

Those who are repeating advanced and may have done similar assignments before, you may skip Set A and spend that time developing your final project but do Set B and add a different twist to your images this time; use a sunset or other interesting background and add atmosphere to your image (take more than simply a technical approach).

Photo by Tochka.jp on Flickr and by Doug Smith

Valentines

Hope you had fun making Valentines over the weekend. I will try to be in the lab from 12:30 if you need to use the digital lab before class. We'll look at our hearty work at 1:30 and begin sharing it and a treat in class. Please bring work to do in the lab after.

Two posts to read: from S.F. and from Africa

Gloria Baker Feinstein has a great blog about her experience creating photography projects as well as some philosophical comments that enrich our appreciation for artmaking. Please read her post about the show that some of us viewed in San Francisco and then scroll to the bottom and read the comments about the "Slow Photography" movement that's becoming very popular and relates to why I wanted you to use your "90 minutes" to experience your own "seeing."