Syllabus

Advanced Photographers’ Studio
Spring 2010
Wednesday evenings 6:30 – 9:30; March 31 – May 19
Please Note: we have a scheduled field trip on Saturday, April 17th
Instructor: Bobby Abrahamson

Course Description
This seminar class is intended for intermediate and advanced photographers who want to further develop their photographic skills, artistic/professional goals, creative vision; and who want help plotting a course toward achieving their goals. Coursework consists of readings, slide shows, guest lecturers, field trips to exhibitions and artists' studios, portfolio reviews, class critiques and discussions, one-on-one meetings with the instructor, weekly assignments and/or work on a long-term project. Topics to be discussed include developing your own artistic style, creating a professional portfolio, approaching galleries for shows, getting your work collected, finishing work for an exhibition, printing in editions, what is 'archival', publishing books, attending workshops and portfolio reviews, writing artist statements, funding and grants, equipment concerns, legal and ethical issues, and professional options (how to be an artist and make a living at the same time).

Prerequisites
Students should have a portfolio and/or be working on a project, and should have basic skills in camera operation, image adjustment and printing.

Course Requirements
Students will be expected to bring in work to class: either prints or digital work on a CD or thumb drive readable by a Mac, or you may choose to post on a gallery on the internet which we can view from the classroom computer.
Also, please see “materials” below for what to bring to first class!!!

Expected Learning Outcomes
1. Advancement of personal artistic vision
2. Improved ability to set realistic goals and to plot a course to achieve them
3. Improved technical, creative and professional skill sets
4. Completion, or advancement towards completion of portfolio or final project

Learning Outcomes + PNCA Core Values
1. Creative Practice
• make creative work • find and develop their personal vision • develop a disciplined studio practice • acquire knowledge and skills grounded in the fine and design arts • engage in written and oral discourse about their work, the work of others • pursue the habits of curiosity, questioning and perseverance.
2. Integrated Knowledge and Critical Thinking:
• engage in disciplinary and cross disciplinary study • examine primary methods of research and inquiry, including cultural, scientific philosophical, and aesthetic • determine how meaning is shaped and reshaped by context, time, and culture • encounter diverse visual and cultural work • acquire the intellectual tools and insight.
3. Social and Ethical Responsibility:
• examine the complex relationships between the creative product, the creative practitioner and the social, historical, and political communities in which they interact • evaluate the relationship of creative work to the social and ethical issues impacting the human condition • explore, through practical and theoretical investigations, the issues impacting the quality of human and non-human life • consider ethical positions.

Materials
For the first class: please bring your portfolio, or a sample of images from your long-term project. Also, in general, you will probably want a USB thumb-drive for bringing work to class for review & editing

Bibliography & Resources
Criticizing photographs, Terry Barret
Doing documentary work, Robert Coles
Looking at photographs, John Szarkowski
The Photographer’s Eye, John Szarkowski
The Nature of Photographs, Stephen Shore
Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes
On Photography, Susan Sontag

To receive regular postings of photographic events & exhibitions email Scott Jones at “PortlandPhotoEvent@comcast.net,” tell him you are my student, and request to be added to his emailings.