The re-framing of the ordinary in a way that calls attention to (or indeed, creates) an extraordinary experience has long been a hallmark of photography.
Indeed, the creation of a photograph is in large part merely the imposition of a frame, with the viewer searching out the significance of the objects, knowing that, to quote Charlotte Cotton, "...it must have one, for the artist has photographed it and thereby designated it significant."
These photographs are heirs of sculpture and performance, are uneasily (perhaps) making a permanent record the transient, the accidental, the momentary. They imply in some way the narrative of 'what series of events led to this?' or 'what forces came together to cause this to happen?'
There is often a silence, a delicacy, a paying of attention that perhaps echoes a sort of devotion. The trapping of a moment from the flow of all moments and thereby causing us to reexamine what surrounds us, the spaces and objects we move through.
The water taken from the river is not the river, but without water there is also no river. Our cup changes the meaning of the water even as it allows us to understand it more fully.
The unexpected, sometimes the humorous, the poetic, the normally un-seeable, the imaginative, the transcendent all appear here. Read Cotton, look at the slides. Consider what you want the image to do. Don't just be formal.
Deliverables: 3 prints at 11x17 or larger.
Make sure that you keep your original large files (anything we shoot is a candidate for the show), but you're also turning in a copy resized to 1600px on the long dimension, jpeg, sRGB, full quality.
IN ADDITION, you will hand in a 1-2 page writeup, describing what you intended to do, why you wanted to do it, what you thought it would accomplish, and how your final product relates to that original intent. Be smart and thoughtful. Don't just tell me what you photographed, because I can figure that out already. Save this as a PDF.
Files should be named:
Lastname_Firstname_PH341_Assig04_001.jpg, 002, 003, etc.
Lastname_Firstname_PH341_Assig04_words.pdf
You can bring them in on your HD or a flash drive, but also upload them the night before. No excuses.
Grading Criteria:
(5) Proper file naming
(5) Proper file size/not screwing it up digitally after you shot it
(20) Aesthetics, print quality
(20) Concept, creativity, originality, problem-solving
(20) Technique and execution of photographs (lighting, technical skills, camera handling, etc.)
(10) Presentation in Critique (cogent, thoughtful, can defend work)
(10) Write-up (reasonable analysis, thought about it ahead of time)