ARTS 107 Digital Photography

The aim of the Digital Photography Course is to develop the conceptual technical and historical tools to develop a critical photography practice. The course will consist of a combination of technical seminars critiques class readings field trips lab time and lectures in photographic history and contemporary art practice. The course will provide a technical introduction in the fundamentals of digital photography including camera operation file management image processing Photoshop printing techniques and image presentation. Additionally students will develop the critical skills needed to discuss photographs productively participate in critiques and generally situate their photographic production within a larger cultural and historical construct. Emphasis will be placed on student's ability to make understand and discuss photographs in a substantive way. Lectures critiques and personal consultations will stress the interdependent concerns of technique and content. Underscoring the course's outcomes of visual literacy are the centrality of photography to the historical development of modernity and the crucial role of digital photography in our image-centric globalized world. Throughout the course students will be encouraged to integrate the breadth of their liberal arts studies in their image making.