Thoughts on First Week of Classes and Some News and LOTS of Links

News: I’m going to be updating the About section to also include some FAQs based on emails I’ve been receiving. That should happen tomorrow.

Also, don’t forget about the openings for tonight. I forgot to include Todd Hido and Nicolai Howalt. They are up at Bruce Silverstein starting tonight. See this post HERE for more info

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So, yesterday was my second day of classes. The way my schedule is set up, I have one class on Monday, one on Tuesday and three on Wednseday. That means my Wednesdays start at 10am and finish at 9pm. The break I have on Wednesday is when the department usually schedules visiting lecturers. Yesterday morning, heading to school, I was worried that I would be out cold under the desk by 4pm, frothing at the mouth from over-stimulating my brain. Well, I survived my first Wednesday and it was pretty amazing.

I started out with Laws of Lighting. This course is going to be a huge help to me. I have no lighting experience and by the end of the semester I should have a much better understanding. Yesterday was a basic intro about the inverse-square law of lighting. We set up 18% gray cards and ran a few tests with a single light source. It took me back to my high school science classes (in the best way possible). Each week we’ll have an assignment and instructor Chris Callis wants us to post our results on a blog. I’ve set up a page on the blog called Lighting where you can see what I’ve posted for Chris. Some of you will probably say “this is crap, I don’t want to go to an MFA program to learn lighting.” Well, you don’t have to take the lighting course. It’s totally optional but it is nice that it is available for those who want it. Right now I’m all about trying to have as many photographic tools at my disposal so I can more accurately convey the ideas in my head.

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There was no lecturer yesterday so I had time to go have lunch. Vegetarian thali and a masala chai at Saravana Bhavan on 26th and Lexington.

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After lunch I had the Master Critique with Penelope Umbrico. We had all received an email asking us to put together a little 15 minute slideshow to show while talking about our influences, background, goals, weaknesses. All that jazz. Things didn’t go as planned. Penelope has two be away for two critiques so yesterday only two students showed their work, each for about one hour. The rest of us?? Well, the whole class will meet up for a critique this Sunday from 12pm-7pm. As an undergrad, I would have been annoyed if I had to give up my Sunday for school but these days the idea of spending time looking at and talking about photographs is a good thing! So, I didn’t show work yesterday, but I will this Sunday. I’m going to show a quick slideshow of my personal photo history and then some prints of work I’m producing currently.

Penelope had some really encouraging things to say in general. She described the crit environment as a laboratory. A place to experiment and to share our failures and successes. She also said that her method is not to make us feel shitty or to make us cry or try to break us down and force us to stand strong. Rather, she said, in the class there is no “bad” or “good” work. As long as there is “rigorous invested commitment to pushing the work forward” then there can be a positive discussion. The great thing about SVA is that with 40 students in my year, there is so much varied work. That means that in the crit there is no one set of rules being applied to everybody’s work. Instead, each of us is critiqued within the context we are working: socially, culturally, historically, politcally, materially, formally, conceptually, personally…

I’m guessing that in my two years at SVA, I’ll have a Master Critique with a teacher who might be more aggressive and forceful, but for the first semester I’ll think I’ll appreciate Penelope’s technique. I have some photo baggage in my head that I need to work through this first semester or two and once that happens and I rebuild myself, then I’ll fight it out in crit.

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After the three hour critique, I had a little ten minute break and then I was back into the same classroom for another three hours. This time, a Historical Perspectives class called Past Tense, Present Tense taught by Lyle Rexer. My brain was feeling a bit groggy until Lyle stepped into the room. He’s enthusiastic, casual, interesting. Readings will be announced weekly.

The syllabus is in flux as there will be various guest lecturers coming in to talk to us throughout the semester but some probable topics include:

Creative Communities - A look at key communities that have shaped photography: Julia Margaret Cameron, Gallery 291 and the Photo-Secession. The Bauhaus and New Bauhaus. Black Mountain College. Dusseldorf Academy of the Arts and others…

Where the Sidewalk Ends – The great road trip:  Robert Frank, Charles Traub, Stephen Shore, Lee Friedlander, Joel Sternfeld, Alec Soth…

The Book as Distribution System – How photo books have shaped photography? Is the photo book dead? Narrative sequence…

Paris – Paris est tres importante dans l’histoire de photo (or something like that). Cafes, Flaneurs, Galleries and Pornography. Baudelaire, Flaubert, Zola, Degas and Atget.

The Built World - Photographing buildings: Fox Talbot, Charles Marveille, Rodchenko, Bechers, New Topographics, Jason Oddy, Ed Ruscha, Neidich and a whole lot more.

Family Values – family snapshots, formal potraits, Sally Mann, Richard Billingham, Thomas Struth and more…

Reportage – Magnum: Passion, Purpose, Irrelevancy? A look at Magnum and the reasons for its formation and how it has grown and changed over the decades. Robert Capa, Gilles Peress, Susan Meiselas, Martin Parr. We will also look at how the photojournalism world has changed and the role of web and new media in trying to define what Magnum’s role (as the foremost of many photojournalism agencies) is in the 21st Century

Martyrs for the Kingdom of Photography – Does photography produce martyrs? What is photography’s role in an era of political violence? Anne Frank, Iran, Gardner’s Civil War photos. Government ban on photos of caskets returning home.

Archives, Collections, Memories, Obsessions – Archiving tendencies in institutions and artists’ thoughts on them. Gerhard Richter, Zoe Leonard, Hong Hao and others…

Africa – We’ll be discussing the connection between photography and progress. Colonial photography and Africa. Africa’s self-visualization:  Saydou Keita, Yinka Shonibare, Stuart O’Sullivan, David Goldblatt, Michael Subotzky and others…

There are two assignments due in the course:

1. A short paper (at least five pages) comparing two images, only one of which can be contemporary.

2. We each have to curate an exhibition. It can be one photo or one hundred photos. It can use different media. We just have to be able to justify our decisions.

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