760-249 Experimental Photography

Students who have completed 760-222 Media Production: Photography are ineligible to enrol in this subject. Students without a basic knowledge of photography must complete the relevant on-line modules in MAIL: Media Arts Interactive Learning. A basic knowledge of Photoshop is required. A quota of 20 students applies to this subject.

25 points of first year visual media or equivalent.

This subject examines the so-called authenticity of photographic images. Through a series of lectures students will gain an understanding of how artists including Man Ray, Moholy-Nagy, Peter Kennedy and Martyn Jolly have diverged from the mainstream of straight photography from the beginning of the twentieth century until the present. Composition and aesthetic principles will also be covered in the lectures. Art criticism, interpreting images and identifying context will be covered in lectures leading students to develop critiquing skills to enable them to evaluate their own work and the work of others. In their practical projects students will explore concepts such as deception, illusion, representing the un-representable, absence, emptiness, photomontage and distortion using devices such as layering, blurring, ghosting, photograms and digital effects. To achieve these visual effects they will be introduced to studio lighting and advanced Photoshop techniques. Students can also combine their photographs with other visual media and/or text.

• be able to work independently to carry a concept through to an artistic outcome;

• demonstrate sound and independent critical and ethical thinking in their choice of materials and processes;

• able to discuss their work conceptually and technically in a group image review

Class participation and work equivalent to 4000 words comprising three photo assignments 60% (due during semester) and a final folio of six related prints with a written introduction to the folio 40% (due at the end of semester). In week 9 each student will give a brief presentation of their proposed final project.

A subject reader will be available from the Bookroom at the beginning of semester.