Background
Like many photography teachers, I spend a good deal of time teaching for student understanding of photographic mechanics and for acquisition of technical skills. I am fortunate to work in a photography classroom equipped with both a traditional and a digital darkroom. I enjoy watching students experience "old-school" darkroom magic. When students witness the effects of light and chemistry on the film negative and paper positive, they learn what the camera actually does. The digital resources enable students to work with today's technology, its convenience and power, and all the possibilities afforded by one's imagination, photographic software, and a connection to the internet.
As in any other studio art class, it is very important that students understand that images make meaning through both their subject matter and formal attributes, and that the history of art is a complex web of narrative/philosophy/poetry/argument of which students become a part as soon as they start making pictures. Ideally, making art in America is a democratic act! Therefore, the educated image-maker must learn something about this history of images.
In a studio class, there is no one perfect place to begin the history of photography. I choose historical or contemporary examples based on my sense of their relevance to the lesson. For example, a beginning-of-the-year exercise in making photograms might suggest images of 19th century botanical cyanotypes, the examples of Bauhaus instructor Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and a print made by a student in last year's class. The progress of photography is complex. My hope is that diverse historical and contemporary examples will inspire students to mine their own capacity for inspiration and original expression.
In addition, my art department colleagues and I have engaged with the need to teach writing across the curriculum. By teaching students how to observe, describe, analyze and evaluate images, the students' own and others, we give them practice ordering their thoughts. Through writing, students gain a better understanding of their own artwork and its place in the world of images.
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