A Photo Student

Monday in Digital Imaging, we began to play with adjustment layers, masking and levels and curves in Photoshop.

Tuesday in C&T, Prof. Leslie got things rolling with a dash of Marxism and Western Marxism.

I introduced  Martha Rosler’s essay “In, Around and Afterthoughts (On Documentary Photography)” in The Contest of Meaning, pp. 303-342

We then jumped into some semiotics with Roland Barthes’ essay “The Photographic Message” which I really enjoyed. I can’t find a copy online (email me if you find one), but HERE is a summary.

UPDATE: Here is Barthes’ “The Photographic Message“. Read it!

This should help:

What We Lurned.

More lurnin'

Make sense????

Wednesday started off with lighting. In class we were playing with balancing strobe and tungsten.

After lunch (chicken and vegetable soup) was good old crit time. There was a mix of documentary work, conceptual projects and some video too.

In Lyle Rexer’s class, we took a super speedy at architectural photography. Names mentioned:

Trafalgar Square, London, during the Erection of the Nelson's Column, ca. 1844. William Henry Fox Talbot

The Sphynx and The Great Pyramid, Geezeh, ca. 1857. Francis Frith

St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague 1928. Josef Sudek

Rockefeller Center 1939. Margaret Bourke-White

Case Study House #22, the Stahl residence at 1635 Woods Drive in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, 1960. Architect: Pierre Koenig. Julius Sherman

Gas Tanks 1982-1992. Bernd & Hilla Becher.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia 2007. Candida Höfer

Sporthalle, 2007. Julian Faulhaber

And then my week’s highlight: Photographer and writer Jason Oddy came to visit  class. He spoke for about an hour and a half and showed lots of work including:

Untitled, Mishkor Sanatorium, nr. Yalta, Ukraine 1999. Jason Oddy

Untitled, The UN, New York, USA 2001. Jason Oddy

Untitled, The Palace of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland 1999. Jason Oddy

Untitled, Neue Proroa, Rugen, Germany 2000. Jason Oddy

A good week!