These are photos from a class assignment. They are double exposures shot on film.
I had David Arnold for this class. I also had him for my History of Photography class which was a major reason I decided to take this class. The professors really do make the classes and one of the best at AAU is David Arnold.
This class has so much different work to do that I found myself intentionally not doing art in exchange for learning about a new process. Once I had a reasonable grasp on a particular experimental concept I would then find a way to incorporate that into my artwork.
There is a lot to learn in this class and it covers a lot of ground. I started with cyanotype photograms and ended with extensive digital manipulations for my final project. There is the use of film, alternative printing techniques and even some traditional darkroom work. The other experimental class does substantially more darkroom work and while there is some overlap between the courses each course differs enough that you might want to consider taking both of them if you were really inspired by experimental work.
Without boasting, I’m a very experienced photographer and I’ve been involved in most aspects of field, so I am generally not as challenged with some assignments. This is not true of this class. I found myself playing a lot and making lots and lots of mistakes. I also had a couple failures, but you have to in order to get better at the process and work.
This course is offered regularly, but it is often canceled due to lack of enrollment. I can highly recommend this class and the instructor. It is not easy, but why should it be?
I did get an A in it, but it wasn’t easy at all. There is a lot of hard work in this class.
I Think I’ll Teach a Class
February 5th, 2011[UPDATE: I did drop this class]
I’m a little P.O.ed about a class I’m taking. BUT, I think there is a lot to take away from this course if I ever want to teach.
I can simply cut-and-paste what the instructor has to say! Wow. I’m paying $2500 so I can copy the work of an instructor and use it in a future class I teach?
Nope. I can’t do that.
So here are the posts from the instructor from a discussion forum during the first week of class.
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I briefly talked about the most important factor in our creative lives – our VISION; that is the center of all our work. To market our creative “fine-art” work, we will need to adapt certain market or commercial rules. That’s part of the work! We need to publish and reach people. In the recent past we have seen impressive campaigns, which had an impact because the style and content resulted from a very individual approach. Something we would call fine-art. But it got published as an advertisement or commercial campaign. It was something innovative and drew a lot of attention.
As professional photographers we will have to make a living from our photography. It is certainly up to us and our (moral) ethnics to draw the line between commercial and fine art context. My personal opinion, however, is that I accept the commercial work as part of our culture. We create images because we want to tell stories, for instance. We can incorporate our style, our creative identity into each assigned work! Commercial applications like advertisement reach many people. In my opinion advertisement is part of our (contemporary) culture and it would be a decisive decision to ignore or reject this platform. Art and Pop Art grew together? This however is my personal opinion and I am curious on your point of view.
Again, thank you all for your participation and I want to see enthusiasm and passion throughout the semester!
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We have such an incredible variety of different photographers with different backgrounds, styles and locations. This is always my favorite part in the online program because we learn so much from each other.
Coming from different parts of the world, from a different background and having an entirely different “story” of why and how we pursue our passion, we have one thing in common.
We chose the same medium to express what we want to express, to communicate what we want to communicate and to share with others what we see.
Lets share what drives us, what motivates and inspired us to pursue our passion.
You will learn a lot about your fellow photographers, as you will about yourself.
It’s a journey.
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One of my most favorite descriptions of what I appreciate the most about photography is, that “we have the ability to see the world through the eyes of the other, while we allow the other, to see the world through our eyes.”
Enjoy the semester!
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I look forward to working with you this semester. We will explore the “Why”, the “”How” and the “What” in the creative process.
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In the following modules, we will learn about different artists, concepts or movements. It is very important to learn about different perceptions but it is really just theory without finding a connection to your personal work.
You might be drawn more to some of the chapters, less to others, all depending if you are inspired by the thoughts. This class is an excellent platform to learn about other artist’s perception, to “see the world through their eyes”. This happens though the theoretical background and readings in the following modules.
The most beneficial part however, is when you make the link to your own work, when you find the link to your own work. I would describe the objective and approach of this class, to define and verbalize our vision.
In other words, to understand more what we are doing and why.
[which is then immediately followed by another post (are the gods at AAU watching for instructor posts numbers?]
We will explore other artist’s ideas. We will not only look at their work, the finished piece we can see in galleries and museums, but we will discuss their process, the context and what made them think in a very unique way.
Our goal however is to understand our own process, our creative center, the vision which ties together our creative work.
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[I'm also taken by the gross generalizations here]
I am impressed with what I have seen from you so far and I am excited to hear more and to see your work progressing throughout the semester.
I’ve learned that some of you are working on or just passed their midpoint reviews, please feel free to share your work or the conceptual stage you are in. This might help since we will incorporate this background knowledge in the critiques and gain important context for reviewing your work generally.
Please also feel free to ask or mention everything what is important to you. As artists, many of us are constantly reflecting and questioning ourselves. This class is a perfect setting of discussing and addressing those questions in a group. Later on in the professional world outside the academic context, you will find it very hard to find a community to share these thoughts, so let’s use this opportunity. It is important to exchange the experiences; as an artist, it can be a lot of questions himself. Communicating is everything here and in dealing with important issues, we will avoid a “writer’s block”.
So be courageous, speak out what you are dealing with? (Your problems/obstacles) and this is the only way we can work on it. Don’t be afraid, you can’t make a mistake here and you can’t fail, but gain!
[which is immediately followed by this post with more generalizations]
Very interesting statements so far!
I think as photographers we all feel that we have to compromise between projects we love – and work we need to shoot in order to make a living.
I want that you all believe in your concepts and yourselves and that you create a constant curiosity about your work and an endless will to explore.
In my experience, the most important thing is to get to know your own work as well as yourself rather than following a trend or a certain lifestyle. You are creating your own way.
I wouldn’t see commercial assignments or jobs outside your fine-art projects as a drag; make them part of it and incorporate your vision into that work. We will talk more about our vision later on and this will be one of the key criteria when we look at photographs within the semester.
It’s interesting to hear about the projects you are working on. Many of you are getting ready for the midpoint review or just passed it. This is an important moment in your academic career and I am very glad I can work with you at this stage.
[Then followed by this one (do I need to point out the generalizations here?) ]
I briefly talked about the most important factor in our creative lives – our VISION; that is the center of all our work. To market our creative “fine-art” work, we will need to adapt certain market or commercial rules. That’s part of the work! We need to publish and reach people. In the recent past we have seen impressive campaigns, which had an impact because the style and content resulted from a very individual approach. Something we would call fine-art. But it got published as an advertisement or commercial campaign. It was something innovative and drew a lot of attention.
As professional photographers we will have to make a living from our photography. It is certainly up to us and our (moral) ethnics to draw the line between commercial and fine art context. My personal opinion, however, is that I accept the commercial work as part of our culture. We create images because we want to tell stories, for instance. We can incorporate our style, our creative identity into each assigned work! Commercial applications like advertisement reach many people. In my opinion advertisement is part of our (contemporary) culture and it would be a decisive decision to ignore or reject this platform. Art and Pop Art grew together? This however is my personal opinion and I am curious on your point of view.
Again, thank you all for your participation and I want to see enthusiasm and passion throughout the semester!
———————————————-
I want to thank this unnamed instructor for such wildly useful comments that I could simply copy and paste them to the THIRD PAGE of an ONLINE discussion with other students in an attempt to make myself seem readily available and actually seriously interested in whatever the heck the student said.
Huh? What did you say?
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Posted in Courses, General Comments, PH 699: Concept & Critical Process, Review
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