PROJECT OVERVIEW:

For this assignment, you’ll be choosing a photographer to study and shoot a project that is influenced by them.

1) Choose a Working/Professional photographer to study.  Go through the list of photographers at the PHOTO MENTOR/INSPIRATION page, choose a photographer from the books in the classroom, or even search online.  Maybe you like the photographer because you think their subject matter is interesting, or you like what they make art about, or you feel like you can relate to their personal story, or even just because you think their photographs look nice and you want to make pictures like them.  Just find someone whose work you find influential.

The list includes photographers who are at different phases in the mastery of their craft – some are young working photographers, others are Master photographers who have passed on.  This is only a small sampling of the many influential photographers the world has to offer. You can totally choose someone else as your Photo Mentor, but they must be a professional or working photographer, someone with a website, a history of commercial work or exhibitions, and someone you can do research on.  Mostly, I want you to be exposed to work by established photographers who you could learn from. This list is a work in progress.  I’ll continue to post more photographers throughout the weekend.

2) Start shooting!  Be sure that you are keeping in mind the photographer you chose when working.  Try to recognize details or techniques or shooting styles that you like about your photographer.

If you chose Franco Salmoiraghi because you really like his detailed, close-up photographs of flowers and plants, you should also only shoot flowers and plants really close-up with good focus and detail.  When printing your pictures, try to to get nice rich blacks by using a higher filter (3 or 3.5).  Maybe you could even crop all your images to a square format.

3) In the previous project, you did a Work In Progress review with a partner.  For this project, youʻll be presenting a PowerPoint presentation to share with the class your Mentor and your Contact Sheet/whatever you have so far.  Your presentation will be 3-4 minute presentation, should have visuals and touch upon the following:

• The photographerʻs life, career, and style.
  • What were/are some influences in their work?
  • What specific techniques are they known for?
• Why you were drawn to this photographer.
  • Touch on your personal relationship to their work.
  • Analyze and discuss one of your favorite photographs or projects that they created.
  • Be specific about the second part by explaining why you like their images – do you like the compositions, the tonal range, or maybe it’s because the images are super contrasty/moody?  Think about when/where this photographer worked, the genre of photography they work in, the influence of their work on society.  You have almost 2 semesters of photo-knowledge, so think back on the techniques and vocabulary you’ve learned in Photo I and II.
• How you approached photographing a project inspired by their work.
  • Talk specifics.  What type of equipment are you using and how does it relate to your photographer?  What subject matter are you looking for?  Are you utilizing specific techniques and stylistic choices to make your project look similar?  What is the visual connection between your Photo Mentor and your resulting project?
• Any images you have so far for this project.  Contact Sheet or individual scans that you think is good.

For example: If you choose Kapulani Landgraff because you think her prints are really beautiful and you like how she infuses images of Hawai’i’s landscape with the mo’olelo and history of the islands, then you could say you plan on shooting landscapes and learning the place name for each location while also working on learning how to make better prints.

4) Think about the post-production.  This is another digital project, so consider what you want your final pictures to look like.  What editing techniques will you use or do you need to do some research to create the effect you want?  I can make some tutorials if you want something specific. Otherwise, Youtube has a lot of really great tutorials for PhotoShop available for free!

WHATʻS DUE:

• 1 contact sheet
  • For digital camera, 1 full roll = 40 pictures
• 1 Presentation
• 4 edited images turned into Google Classroom

AT THE END OF THIS PROJECT, STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO:

• analyze imagery and emulate certain elements of a professional photographerʻs practice
• continue to practice techniques/styles that weʻve learned throughout the semester (studio lighting, still life, portraiture, color, scanning, photoshop editing, etc!)
• begin to develop a personal body of work that reflects your own interests/abilities

PREVIOUS STUDENT WORK: