The goal of this project is to have you try your hand at photography and to think about the ways that the camera lens can help you to see aspects of your ordinary surroundings that you do not normally notice in the course of living your everyday life.
The assignment has four main components
1. Photograph. Take a minimum of one or two photographs per day between October 14th and October 20th that you think captures a novel aspect of New York City that you had not seen or thought about before. You can take as many photographs as you want on whatever subject(s) you want, but the goal is to narrow down the field to have 7-10 quality photographs to include in your portfolio.
Note: All artistic decisions are yours to make. I encourage you to reflect on photography as an artistic medium and think about what you hope to capture and convey with your photographs before you set out for your photography shoot.
Note 2: You do not have to take your pictures with a digital camera, but you will need to be able to post your photographs in a digital format. If you want to try out a fancier camera than your phone, you can try checking one out from Baruch’s Newman Library.
Note 3: Please spread out these photographs over the 7 day period; do not take them all in one day.
2. Arrange. Organize your pictures on your blog site (this should be a new blog site that is integrated into the larger “shell” site that Denisse has sent you instructions about. Draw upon your experience with the curatorial project to think about how best to order the photographs and what kind of meaning and message you are construct and conveying with this arrangement.
3. Write. Compose a 750-1000 critical essay about your portfolio. In it you should discuss the photographs you have included and address the following questions: Why did you chose this particular subject(s)? What do you hope to convey with these images? How do you think the photographs work individually? How do they work together? Draw upon Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, and others to explain your photographs and portfolio. Remember to cite any references to make to their work.
4. Review. Bring your photographs (on your laptop) to class on October 24th. We will do a photo review in class in which you will discuss your portfolio and your critical review essay and receive feedback from your peers.
A preliminary portfolio (photographs plus critical review) should be posted to your blog site by Sunday, October 22th at 11:00 pm.
Before class on Tuesday, October 24th, please review the portfolios and essays of those in your peer review group.
Final Project is due Sunday, October 29th at 9:00 pm.
