Photography
Format: 4-5 pages of text (no more, no less)
This paper builds on the skills developed in the writing exercises to combine a visual description and analysis with a consideration of context in understanding the meaning a photograph communicates. You may choose any advertising, journalistic, art, or vernacular photograph to discuss within a specific context. You may not choose any photograph you have written about before.
Goals of the paper:
To articulate a close, thoughtful, and detailed analysis of the visual aspects of a particular image. This will combine discussion of subject matter with analysis of the photographic technique (compositing, balance, angle, lighting, perspective use of color, etc).
To clearly and thoughtfully explain the context of the imagewhere it is seen, who the audience is, and how the image circulatesand the impact of this context on the meaning of the image.
To write a longer paper in more organized and more formal prose than has been required for the writing exercises. A paper that communicates effectively is a paper that is proofread, free of grammatical errors, engagingly written with active verbs and appropriate adjectives, and well-structured at the sentence, paragraph, and document levels.
Take note: is not enough to stop at visual analysis: this paper must also consider the photographs surrounding and explain how those specific surroundings impact your understanding of the image.
In lessons we have often discussed how a photograph is circulated: is it published in a book? (what kind of book?) A popular magazine? (who are the readers?) An art magazine? Is it printed on a card to trade amongst friends? Is it painstakingly printed and hung in a gallery? How, in short, is the photograph used and put into circulation and how does this affect the meaning of the image?
Choosing an image: Spend some time choosing an image. In deciding, you will want to choose an image that has interesting surroundings. Choose wisely!
For advertising photographs, look in newspapers or magazines, on billboards or online, on the sides of buses or the fronts of cereal boxes anywhere that advertisers are using a photograph to sell something.
For journalistic photographs, look in newspapers and magazines like Newsweek or Time, look at specific photojournalism websites such as the New York Times lens blog, look at any home page of a major news outlet (CNN, Fox News, etc) anywhere that photographs are used to report on current events.
For art photographs, visit the Center for Creative Photography or UAMA on campus or go to Etherton Gallery in downtown Tucson. Choose a photograph that is being presented as an original art object, in an art setting. Do not choose a photograph reproduced in an art book or reproduced online you should be looking at the original art object.
A vernacular photograph is one made by an amateur of ordinary life photographs in albums, pictures of your friends, framed photographs of family members, photographs of daily life posted on social media websites, etc. Look for photographs you keep in your wallet, beside your bed, in your cell phone, on your Facebook page, etc.
Note that each of these categories already directs you to an understanding of the context of the image.
** If you have an idea for a photograph to choose but you arent sure: email me or come to my office hours.
Components of the paper
1) Visual description and visual analysis based on a photograph of your choice. This will be your longest, most thorough, and closest exercise in looking yet.
2) Analysis of the publication, venue, or location in which you encounter the photograph, and its effect on how you understand the photograph. This should be a good portion of the paper push yourself to really develop your ideas in this area.
What to avoid: Avoid choosing a photograph out of a book: no matter how good your visual analysis is, it probably wont make a very interesting analysis of surrounding context. Avoid choosing a photograph from a general online image search or a photographers website. Do not choose a photograph that you made. Do not choose a photograph from a textbook or other compilation of images (like of book of advertising or photojournalism). I make these suggestions because these kinds of images almost always result in less interesting papers.
General suggestions
As with the writing exercises, every visual point you make in the paper should be backed up with specific visual observation. If you write that the photograph seems exuberant, or has a feeling of isolation, or conveys tension, you must explain what makes it seem so in visual terms.
A successful paper will present a detailed analytic description of the chosen image, taking into consideration not only the image itself but physical elements such as size, framing, lighting, where it appears, what it is surrounded by, etc.
No research is required. Your focus should be on the visual information in and around the image.
Though you will be turning in your image, assume that your reader has not seen it, thus her only knowledge of the photograph is what you write about it.
