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What’s a blurb?

A blurb is the short bit of writing that sets up the book. It isn’t a caption for the pictures, and it isn’t a full artist statement: it doesn’t explain every photograph or narrate your process. Instead, it says what this book is for, what holds the pictures together, and, just as important, what it’s deliberately not going to be about. Keep it short (a sentence or two to a short paragraph), specific to this project rather than grand, honest about what the pictures do and don’t do.

ART 376 Photobook: MW 13:10-16:00 [syllabus]
Week 1
8/31 (MON)
C
  • Portfolio and the application process [slides]
    • 5 photographs per day, 30 photographs per week, or 120 photographs per month.
      • You will be asked to share all of your photographs as JPEG files approximately once a month.
      • I suggest using a digital camera/smarphones, with occasional use of film if it serves a specific, well-defined purpose. Given the number of images we will be using, digital will generally be more practical. We will also use digital images when submitting work and assembling books.
    • You will produce 420 photographs/semester to choose from. In addition to this, you may use photographs you have taken in the past for the photobook if it is less than 1/3 of the photos you use in the final photobook via blurb.com

    • FYI: Printing in the DML. Submit digital files to be printed 24 hours in advance [here][instructions/information]. You may talk to Paul if you want to print on your own
  • Content warning
  • Monographs and photobooks (matter of itention, and who does the editing)
  • Watch Alec Soth Rambling through Eggleston's Democratic forest [video 43 mins]
L
  • Photobooks for this class (put bookmark on area of interest)
    • William Eggleston's Guide — William Eggleston (1976)
    • Advice for Young Artists — Alec Soth (2024)
    • Sleeping by the Mississippi — Alec Soth (2004)
    • Present Tense — JoAnn Verburg (2007)
    • I'm So Happy — Marvin Heiferman and Carole Kismaric (1990)
    • An Apartment House Close Up — Peter Schaaf (1980)
    • Now Again — Laura Letinsky (2005)
    • Landmark — J.W. Fisher + J.T. Leonard (2015)
    • How Terry Likes His Coffee — Florian van Roekel (2010)
S
9/2 (WED)
C
  • Choosing a topic, backing into a topic
  • Different photobooks and subject matter
  • Seriality
  • Individual meeting [Forrest]
R
  • Read by class
    • Susan Sontag On Photography (Plato's cave) [PDF]
L
  • Photobooks for this class (put bookmark on area of interest)
    • Ricas y Famosas — Daniela Rossell (2002)
    • Fresh Fruits — Shoichi Aoki (2005)
    • New and Used — Marc Joseph (2006)
    • One — Ken Ohara (1970)
    • Evidence — Mike Mandel and Larry Sultan (1977) (collection turning into poetry)
    • Women with Cameras (Anonymous) — Anne Collier (2017)
    • American Boys — Soraya Zaman (2019)
    • Dawoud Bey: Harlem, U.S.A. — Dawoud Bey (2012)
    • An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar — Taryn Simon (2007)
    • The Stage — Donigan Cumming (1991)
    • Ray's a Laugh — Richard Billingham (1996)
    • EndCommercial: Reading the City — Florian Böhm, Luca Pizzaroni, Wolfgang Scheppe (2002)
Week 2
9/7 (MON)
C
  • Labor Day, no class
9/9 (WED)
C
  • Making an argument with pictures (pictures with text)
  • Pictures and Words #1 [23mins] by Alec Soth
  • Assignment 1 handed out: 1 photo, 3 different texts (for the next few classes, pay attention to text usage)
  • Individual meeting [Damien]
L
  • Photobooks for this class (put bookmark on area of interest)
    • Photonovels
    • And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People — Carrie Mae Weems (1990)
    • An Apartment House Close Up — Peter Schaaf (1980)
    • Exquisite Pain — Sophie Calle (2004)
    • Riding 1st Class on the Titanic! — Nathan Lyons (1999)
    • The Lonely Doll — Dare Wright (1957)
    • Humans and Other Animals — Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin (2015)
    • 1880 Crow Peace Delegation — Wendy Red Star (2014) (online not a photobook per se)
    • Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness (Vol. II) — Zanele Muholi (2024)
    • Another Way of Looking at Love — Janelle Lynch (2018)
    • The Table of Power 2 — Jacqueline Hassink (2012)
Week 3
9/14 (MON)
C
L
  • Photobooks for this class (put bookmark on area of interest)
    • Shashin yo Sayonara (Bye Bye Photography) — Daido Moriyama (1972)
    • Kissa by Kissa — Craig Mod (2020)
    • Illuminance — Rinko Kawauchi (2011)
    • Dein Kampf — Brad Feuerhelm (2019)
    • Restraint and Desire — Ken Graves and Eva Lipman (2021)
    • HOAX — Agnieszka Sejud (2020)
9/16 (WED)
C
  • Blue Sky Field Trip
Week 4
9/21 (MON)
C
  • View assignment 1 (text and image)
  • Diptych/triptych (what does it mean to put one photo next to another)?
  • Is Diptych a montage?
  • Jason Fulford Exercise
  • Hand out assigment 2: diptych or triptych
  • Individual meeting [Aine]
R
L
  • Photobooks for this class (put bookmark on area of interest)
    • One Wall a Web — Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa (2018)
    • Laurence Aëgerter, Photographic Treatment (Vol. 1, 3, 4) — (Dewi Lewis, 2018)
    • In Plain Air — Irina Rozovsky (2021)
    • Some Kinda Vocation — Cheryl Dunn (2007)
    • Eve Sonneman — Nohra Haime Gallery
    • Jan Groover, Photographer: Laboratory of Forms — ed. Tatyana Franck (2020)
    • The Map and The Territory — Luigi Ghirri (2018)
    • Kodachrome — Luigi Ghirri (1978)
    • Jason Fulford
    • Nathan Lyons
D
  • Assignment 1 due before class starts: 1 photo 3 diffent texts:
    Choose 1 photo you took of your choice. In Google slides, repeat the slide with the photo three times. Assign 3 different texts that work differently with the image. Submit [here]
9/23 (WED)
C
L
  • Photobooks for this class (put bookmark on area of interest)
    • Prairie — Robert Adams (1978)
    • What Can We Believe Where? — Robert Adams (2010)
    • Time Passes — Robert Adams (2007)
    • This Day — Robert Adams (2011)
    • Asunder — S. Billie Mandle (2025)
    • The Pond — John Gossage (1985)
    • An Afternoon in Astoria — Rudy Burckhardt (2003)
    • In Plain Air — Irina Rozovsky (2021) FIND
    • RFK — Paul Fusco (2000)
Week 5
9/28 (MON)
C
  • Time, story time, constructed time
  • Individual meeting [Eli]
L
  • Photobooks for this class (put bookmark on area of interest)
    • Journey to the Center — Cristina de Middel (2024)
    • Chance Meeting / Things Are Queer — Duane Michals (1970/1973)
    • A Shimmer of Possibility — Paul Graham (2007)
    • Frozen or condensed time: Jeff Wall, Gregory Crewdson
    • Pictures from Home — Larry Sultan (1992)
    • The Notion of Family — LaToya Ruby Frazier (2014)
    • Is This Place Great or What — Brian Ulrich (2011)
    • Eros & Thanatos — Duane Michals (1993)
9/30 (WED)
C
  • Studio work time
  • Individual meeting [Ye Guo] 1:10pm
  • Individual meeting [Ian] 1:50pm
  • Individual meeting [Sisy] 2:30pm
  • Individual meeting [??] 3:10pm
D
  • One month mark. Submit 240 photos (jpgs) [here]
  • Scan your classmate's photos
Week 6
10/5 (MON)
C
  • Progress report: Which photos of yours stand out to you and why?
  • View assignment 2
D
  • Assignment 2 due: diptych or triptych: On Google slides or using BookWright create an intentional/experimental diptych. If you use BookWright, submit the PDF proof/export from the .blurb project.
    Submit [here].
10/7 (WED)
C
  • The photo album and scrapbooks
  • Individual meeting [TBD]
L
  • Photobooks for this class (put bookmark on area of interest)
    • Deanna Templeton, "What She Said" (CW: suicide, self-harm, body dysmorphia) [video]
    • Larry Sultan, Pictures from Home
    • Mitch Epstein, Family Business
    • LaToya Ruby Frazier, The Notion of Family
    • Diana Markosian, Santa Barbara
    • Sorry I Gave Birth I Disappeared But Now I'm Back — Andi Gáldi Vinkó (2022)
Week 7
10/12 (MON)
C
R
  • Read before class
    • Tina Campt, Listening to Images "introduction" [PDF]
L
  • Photobooks for this class (put bookmark on area of interest)
    • Widline Cadet, Ritual [Dis]Appearance / Seremoni Disparisyon (2025)
    • Glass Life — Sara Cwynar (2021)
    • Hoax — Agnieszka Sejud (2020)
    • I Can't Stand to See You Cry — Rahim Fortune (2021)
    • The Forgotten — Rosalind Fox Solomon (2021)
    • Pharmakon — Teju Cole (2024)
    • Deana Lawson: An Aperture Monograph — Deana Lawson (2018)
    • I'm Looking Through You — Tim Davis (2021)
    • Cloud Physics — Terri Weifenbach (2021)
    • Yoko — Masahisa Fukase (1978)
    • Ravens — Masahisa Fukase (1986)
10/14 (WED)
C
  • TBD
Fall Break 10/17-25
Week 8
10/26 (MON)
C
10/28 (WED)
C
  • Comic books
    • Scott McLouod
    • Tezuka Osamu/Otomo Katuhiro/Akira
    • compare with FOTONOVEL?
Week 9
11/2 (MON)
C
  • Studio work time
  • Editing sequencing
  • Photobook appreciation
D
  • Two month mark. Submit 240 photos (jpgs) [here] (You can overwrite/update exisiting folder from last month)
  • Scan your classmate's photos
11/4 (WED)
C
  • Progress report: try to answer What's your 'blurb' for your photobook?
  • Card exercise (bring cards)
Week 10
11/9 (MON)
C
  • Blurb workshop
  • Photobook appreciation
11/11 (WED)
C
  • Film, video, and photographs
    • La Jetee
    • Michael Snow: Cover to Cover (1975)
    • Isaac Julien
    • Douglas Gordon's multi-screen installations [video]
Week 11
11/16 (MON)
C
  • Studio work time
11/18 (WED)
C
  • Blurb prototype presentation
Week 12
11/23 (MON)
C
  • Blurb submission
11/25 (WED)
C
  • Blurb submission (final day to submit to blurb)
Thanksgiving Holiday 11/26-29
Week 13
11/30 (MON)
C
  • Photobook on the internet, from the internet
    • Amalia Ullman, John Rafman
12/1 (TUE) night
C
  • Blue Sky Selection Committee Field Trip??? (Tue night)
12/2 (WED)
C
Week 14
12/7 (MON)
C
12/9 (WED)
C
  • Last day of classes; Wed evening classes meet if they did not meet 11/25
Final Exam
12/14-17 (MON-THR)
D
  • Final Exam




C Class............plans for class..subject to change
L Lab............darkroom/lab session
A Assignments......what you should be doing outside of class among other things.
R Readings.........finish reading by.
D Due.............yes, due date.
S Supplementary.....further reading/references/artists discussed in class