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 to 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.