nate and cindy; fact and fiction in photography

Photographs have always been presumed to possess a certain objectivity, an element of honesty and forthrightness in their representation of people and places.  From the earliest views of civil war battlefields by Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardener, to the highly subjective photos of Diane Arbus,  the photograph as a document has been at the core of the development of the medium.

But narrative statements can come in the form of fiction as well as documentary fact. Photographers such as Francesca Woodman and Cindy Sherman expressed dark, personal beliefs about society and gender roles in their photographs. Nate Larson looks at cultural icons and contemporary beliefs in his series “Charlatans and Tricksters."

In this final assignment we will look at the role of subjectivity in making objective statements.

assignment #4: still life

in this assignment we will continue our discussion of composition and design by focusing specifically on arranged images. still life is part of the foundation on which photography stands, but unlike still life in painting and other applied media, it has its own curious approach to design. in our explorations you are asked to attempt two very different types of still life; arranged and found.  

although not specifically required, arranged implies a surface, objects purposefully chosen and carefully selected, and lighting applied with great care. 

found still life is a matter of circumstance- a discarded object, flowers in a vase catching the light just so, dew on a spider's web...  a remarkable curosity.

your mission is to find three examples of each type of still life, arranged and found.  return them, along with an exhibition print for the wall, by monday april 2nd.

for shelia [digital + van dyke drown]

van dyke brown video

mid-term spoiler alert!

guess what kiddo's... mid-term grades are due by 3pm on wednesday february 29- happy leap year!  that means i need all your work come monday eve...

assignment #1
     3 calotypes prints
assignment #2
     6 poet of prague prints

all blog updates finished
     25 things
     wish you were here
     camera checklist

assignment #3: diptychery

hey all- assignment #3 is up and waiting for you: we'll talk more about it on monday but the skinny is two photos are better than one!  click the title link or check the "downloadables" section for the assignment handout.










© balazs sprenc

links for shelia

allison carey

jonathan stead

adam gabriel winnie

Rockland Gallery [last 2 images]

poet of prague

in this next series of slide lectures we will explore photographic design, a brief biography of a few important artists, and a short treatise on exposure and metering.  We will meet a few new people, namely, ralph gibson, minor white, tina modotti, edward weston and minor white. 

But there is no need to wait to meet them- they are parked in the links section awaiting your arrival...

© tina modotti

blog assignment #2: on the naming of parts

on your blog, list the following details about your camera of choice for the semester:

1] camera maker

2] camera model

3] year the camera was introduced, cost at introduction

4] camera type [slr, point and shoot, rangefinder, etc]

5] operation modes p/a/s/t/m, etc]

6] battery type, cost

7] shutter speed range

8] aperture range

9] lens, or lens type

10] minumum focal distance

talbotype round-up!

hee-ya.  hey cowboys and cowgirls, monday will be a bit different than original planned. [revision 1.2 on the sked] we'll continue with the talbotypes one more night. I'll show you how to mat them and we'll hang the finished product in our shiny new gallery downstairs. 

then we move on to cameras and film...

low tech / high touch

sometimes a blackboard will do just fine to get the point across.  i think of it as a non-animated prezi...

digital talbotype

process for making a paper negative 'talbotype'

1] choose an image with a full range of tones


2] open the file in Photoshop


3] change mode to Grayscale (image/mode/grayscale)


4] invert the image (image/mode/invert)


5] reverse the orientation of the image (image/ image rotation/flip canvas horizontal


6] adjust output levels (image/adjustments/levels) set black output to 25, white output to 225


7] print on bond paper 


8] oil image with WD40 or linseed oil and allow to sit for at least 24 hours

fox-talbot and the talbotype

The Talbotype, or 'Calotype' (its proper name) was invented by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1840. Although talbot did not intend it as such, It was seen as a simpler alternative to the complicated Daguerreotype process, and was attractive to early practitioners due to its relative simplicity.

The Calotype is technically the negative image on made paper, but its positive counterpart, the salted paper print, is the more common form in which calotypes are encountered. Calotypes are made by brushing paper with a solution of silver nitrate and then immersing it in a solution of potassium iodide to form a light-sensitive layer of silver iodide. Exposure in a camera produces a latent (invisible) image which is developed, fixed in hypo and washed. The translucency of Calotypes can be improved through waxing, and a positive can be made by printing out the image in a printing frame.

The Calotype was never commercially successful and was all but forgotten within ten years, having given way to the wet collodion (glass negative) and the albumen printing processes.

unit 1: out of the darkness...

The term "Camera Obscura" literally translates to "dark room", and the use of a pinhole in a window shade to form an inverted image of an outside scene on an wall of a dark room has been known since at least the 6th century. The replacement of the pinhole with a lens was first described in scientific journals in 1568. 

Thusly did the camera obscura become a solution in search of a problem.  It was in the early 1800's however that two Frenchmen; Jospeh Nicephore-Niepce and Louis Daguerre, and an Englishman; Henry Fox-Talbot, began experiments independently of one another to "fix the shadows" of the camera obscura image permanently onto a surface.

Daguerre gets credit for the first successful image, and Talbot's process is the antecedent of todays silver-based photography. And although neither could have fathomed the impact their discoveries would have on the generations which followed, both saw a rapid and exponential growth of the medium throughout their lifetime.

For more information see:
Daguerreotype                                                           Calotype

welcome everyone!

hey everybody! welcome to the basic black and white photo class blog.  you'll be able to keep up with everything you need to know as the class progresses.