Exercise: New Topographics [at least 2 prints or more]
- Read "New Topographics" by Britt Salvesen and choose a passage (a
sentence or a short paragraph) that describes a way of photographing you
want to try: where to stand, what kind of light, what subject, what to
leave out.
- Find a photograph or series that works the way your passage
describes. It can come from New Topographics by Britt Salvesen,
The Photograph as Contemporary Art by Cotton, or a photographer
we've seen in class.
- Take photographs specifically for this assignment in that mode, and
print at least two of them (darkroom or inkjet).
Inkjet printing is done in the DML (we'll go over this in class soon).
Submit digital files to be printed
[here]
[instructions/information]
- Make a wall label to pin up next/under your prints on plain paper. Include:
- The Salvesen passage, in quotation marks, with the page number
- The photographer and title of the work you looked at (a small thumbnail is optional)
- 2 to 4 sentences on how your prints do what the passage describes.
Point to specific choices: where you stood, the light and time of day,
the framing, what is in and out of the frame.
Handin:
- Pin up your prints and your wall label before class starts
This is an exercise in working within a convention not a creative project. Aim
for a faithful attempt at New Topographics rather than your own
reinterpretation. That is why I value the
attempt/process and not the end result.
The goal is not necessarily to take great photograph(s) (although it
doesn't hurt) but to understand and internalize the process of
taking such a photograph. It hopefully will inform and change the way you look
at some of the photographs you see today.