Week 4

Exploring Place

Vertical black-and-white photograph of Coast Artillery Museum at Fort Worden State Park.

Vertical black-and-white photograph
of Coast Artillery Museum at
Fort Worden State Park.

This week you will begin by applying what you have learned to create photographs that explore place. Photography has a rich history of documentation. Since the late 19th century, photographers have been using the camera to document. Notably, photographers Timothy O'Sullivan and William Henry Jackson produced vast bodies of work documenting the American West. Documentary photographs of the 20th century moved from the landscapes of O’Sullivan and Henry Jackson to streets and buildings. During the Great Depression, photographers such as Walker Evans produced important works that documented the unique characteristics of place, which included buildings and the landscape.

This week you will explore the art of documentary photography in two different ways—black and white and color. Be sure to pay attention to compositional and design strategies you have learned so far in the class. You will apply camera mechanics you have learned, controlling depth of field for desired effects. Be sure to take a large pool of images with which to work. When converting images to black and white, be sure to save a copy of your file, preserving your original image.

Weekly Objectives

  1. Learn proper digital camera operation.

  2. Learn color evaluation and color correction techniques.

  3. Explore experimental lighting and digital special effects.

  4. Learn proper resample techniques.

  5. Learn basic digital image enhancements using image editing programs.

  6. Present digital photographs using basic design principles.

  7. Use the fundamental design elements effectively.

Activities

Readings

  • A Short Course in Digital Photography

    • Chapter 4: The Digital Darkroom

    • Chapter 5: Imaging Editing

Activities

  • Discussion 4

  • Shooting Assignment 4

  • Quiz 4

Exploring Place

Horizontal color photograph of an abandoned house in Kauai, Hawaii, with graffiti.

Horizontal color photograph of
an abandoned house in Kauai,
Hawaii, with graffiti.

At the heart of documentary photography is the ability to tell a story about places and the people who live in them or have walked around them. Buildings, bridges, busy city streets, lonely towns, and all the spaces in between contain the visual footprint of humanity. This assignment allows you to use your lens to capture the unique characteristics of four historical or culturally significant places of your choosing. Review the work by five famous photographers to view examples and learn more about the power of exploring place.

Inspirational Photographers

Select each image, or use the Tab and Enter keys to learn about some Inspirational Photographers.

Walker Evans

Black-and-white picture of photographer Walker Evans.

Walker Evans was a photojournalist and American photographer known for documenting the Great Depression and photographing for the Farm Security Administration.

Helen Levitt

Black-and-white picture of photographer Helen Levitt

Helen Levitt was an American photographer known for working in the street photography style in New York in the early to mid-20th Century. Her powerful black-and-white photographs capture life in and around New York City. She is one of the most important yet least known photographers.

Jill Freedman

Black-and-white picture of photographer Jill Freedman.

Jill Freedman is a contemporary American documentary photographer, known for capturing life on the streets. She captures the world with a keen eye for human relationships and interactions.

Robert Frank

Black-and-white picture of photographer Robert Frank.

Robert Frank was a Swiss-American photographer who helped define the art of street photography. He lived and photographed during the mid to late 20th century. He used his camera and black-and-white film to depict an honest and sometimes critical portrait of America in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

William Eggleston

Black-and-white picture of photographer William Eggleston.

William Eggleston was a pioneer of color photography, crafting the dye-transfer process. Inspired by Robert Frank, his work was the ultimate exploration of place with a camera and film in the mid to late 20th century. His work inspired filmmakers such as David Lynch. He presented the complexities of the everyday world with honesty and simplicity and had an extraordinary eye for the sublime.

Research the above photographers on the internet to know more about them.

You can also download a Word version of Inspirational Photographers.

Exploring Place –The Photograph as Document

Select the play icon, or use the Enter key to watch the video.

This video will help you to learn the camera and digital techniques to explore the art of documentary photography in both black-and-white and color photographs.

Conclusion

This week helped you learn about using your camera as a tool for documenting place. As we move past the halfway point, this is a good time to back up your images. Be sure to back up your images on your computer. You should regularly move all the images off your SD card on to more permanent storage and format your memory card. SD cards can easily get corrupted, and using your camera to format your memory card can prevent this. Be sure to remove your images before doing this though, as your images will be deleted when formatting the card. Refer to your camera manual for information on this process.

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