Experimental Photography: An Introduction

What is a photograph? Explore this question in a hands-on, 3-week intensive introduction to analog cameraless photographic techniques. We'll take advantage of long, bright summer days to learn non-traditional photographic printmaking approaches, test the boundaries of our understanding of photography, and experiment with our processes and materials. We'll focus on the many approaches to making photograms, a cameraless image related to the monoprint, both in the black-and-white darkroom and with handmade emulsions exposed in the sun. We will create these photographic images using common materials and largely non-toxic chemicals to create emulsions sensitive to UV light, coating paper with these emulsions, creating compositions on paper with stencils, hand-made negatives, found objects and materials, plants, fruits, vegetables, and more, exposing our compositions in the sun, processing them in water and hanging them to dry. Techniques include: silver-gelatin (darkroom) photograms, cyanotypes (also known as "blueprints" or "sunprints"), Van Dyke Brown, anthotypes (plant-based dye/emulsions), lumenprints (exposing black + white photo paper in UV light), and as many hybrid combinations of these techniques as you can invent.

Class sessions combine demonstrations, supervised studio work, group critique and discussion, and short presentations on historical and contemporary practices and artists. Students submit a complete portfolio of all work made and participate in a final critique.

This class welcomes everyone from beginners to advanced practitioners; it is equally suited to students new to photography who want to learn basic photographic principles through experimental, low-tech methods, more advanced photography students who are ready to incorporate non-silver, non-digital techniques in their practice and experiment with new materials; and students with a background in 2D visual art who are interested in exploring the rich intersections of drawing, painting, printmaking, and photographic processes. 

This class is a 3-week intensive, June 24 - July 12, 2024, offered for 4 or 8 credits. Students enrolled for 4 credits will attend class 1.5 days/week and students enrolled for 8 credits will attend 3 days/week. Assignment quantity and scale will be scaled accordingly. 

This class is a prerequisite for "Experimental Photography: Projects," offered in the 2nd summer session for students interested in advancing skills learned in this class through individually designed projects.