This intro level photography class was taught by Professor Jay Simple on Mondays and Wednesdays. The course aimed to teach the basic processes and principles of black and white photography using a 35mm film camera. We also learned about the history of black and white photography, while reading many articles about historical and contemporary photographers.
This course fulfilled my Aesthetic Expressions Pillar, while also counting towards my Art Education Concentration.
As I took this course during the pandemic, it was completely online. We met virtually via Zoom, and we did our work on our own. During our class meeting times, we would discuss our readings, learn how to use our cameras and Photoshop, and critique our work. In our own time, we would do our readings and responses, take our photographs, develop and scan in our film, and edit them in Photoshop.
Our course book was Why Photography Matters by Jerry Thompson, a short book about why photography is an important form of art and how it is unique. In addition to the book, we read many different articles concerning the history of black and white photography as well as some articles regarding contemporary photographers. We also watched videos regarding different photographers and what their art means to them. Through all three methods of acquiring information, I was able to glean much new knowledge from the course about photography as an art form and about how to be a better photographer myself.
I have always been an avid photographer, but this course was exceptionally interesting to me, because we learned how to use film cameras. We learned about the basic functions and abilities of the camera, as well as how to develop film. Much of what I learned, I have been able to apply to digital photography.
This image is from one of our assignments where we were tasked with filling a roll of film with portrait photographs. I wanted to think outside the box with this project; I did not want to simply take pictures of people’s faces. A portrait, as I learned in the course, is not just someone’s profile. It can be any representation of a person, especially to create an idea of who the person is. For this project, I captured images with my hand and something meaningful to me. I chose to include this image here for a few reasons. Horses play a huge role in who I am, so you can see my hand on the muzzle of a horse; this image really shows a part of me. I also included this image for technical reasons. Throughout this course, I learned about what style of photography I like. This image shows a shallow depth of field with a narrow view. Depth of field is how much of the image is in focus. In this case, I used a shallow depth of field, meaning only the aspects of the photo in the foreground are in focus. I learned that I enjoy taking photographs where the depth of field is very shallow, and the image I want the viewer to look at is all you can see.
This course helped me fulfil goals that I did not even know I had until I took the course. I was a bit disappointed that I had a studio art class online, but I made the most of it and learned quite a bit. Since the course, I have also been able to apply what I learned, including the technical aspects (shallow depth of field, shutter speed, aperture) and what I learned about myself as a photographer and artist. While I have already made use of what I learned in this class, I can take this information with me for the rest of my career as an artist.