ART 136a, Black & White Photography Capturing Light  Staff

An introductory course in black-and-white photography concentrating on the use of 35mm cameras. Topics include the lensless techniques of photograms and pinhole photography; fundamental printing procedures; and the principles of film exposure and development. Assignments encourage the variety of picture-forms that 35mm cameras can uniquely generate. Student work is discussed in regular critiques. Readings examine the invention of photography and the flâneur tradition of small-camera photography as exemplified in the work of artists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Helen Levitt, Robert Frank, and Garry Winogrand.  HU  RP
TTh 10:30am-12:20pm

ART 138a or b, Digital Photography Seeing in Color  Staff

The focus of this class is the digital making of still color photographs with particular emphasis on the potential meaning of images in an overly photo-saturated world. Through picture-making, students develop a personal visual syntax using color for effect, meaning, and psychology. Students produce original work using a required digital SLR camera. Introduction to a range of tools including color correction, layers, making selections, and fine inkjet printing. Assignments include regular critiques with active participation and a final project.  HU  RP
HTBA

ART 236a, Picturing at the Peabody  Lisa Kereszi

A photography course that is taught both in the School of Art and also in the classrooms and Imaging Studio of the Peabody Museum, making use of the museum’s collections for subject matter and inspiration. Students choose a specific subject, theme, or collection in the museum, research it, and investigate it photographically on site or in the studio to create an original body of work that directly relates to themes and objects found in the museum’s collections. Students work collaboratively to curate a semi-public exhibition in the Peabody Museum building of their photographic artwork to put on view, as well as an exhibit of actual objects chosen in the course of their photography project research. The course studies other artists’ archival exhibits and makes use of an existing exhibition of actual objects curated from the collections to learn the history of photography, as well as learn how an exhibition of archival material is researched, organized, and executed. Prerequisite: ART 138 or permission of instructor.
WF 10:30am-12:20pm

ART 337b, Picturing Us: Representation in Digital Photography  Tommy Kha

Photographic investigation of the politics of visibility and intersectionality, the social processes in which identities are formed and revised. Exploration of the constructions of race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, citizenship, ethnicity, religion, and class. Students study problems through photography, including concepts of identity and the construction of identities; how some identities appear invisible, visible, or super-visible; and which identities speak authentically and also universally. Prerequisite: ART 136, ART 138, or equivalent.  HU  RP
WF 10:30am-12:20pm

ART 338a, Contemporary Problems in Color with Digital Photography  Tommy Kha

How do you make a contemporary portrait? What is an effective portrait? What makes a portrait today? Can one be made through observation? Is consent required? This class confronts these questions, among others, while addressing the often uneasy relationship between photographer and sitter. Using digital capture with an emphasis on color photography students produce original work in portraiture by committing to a regular and rigorous photographic practice. Range of tools addressed include working with RAW files, masks, compositing and grayscale, and medium and large-scale color inkjet printing. Students produce original work for critique, with special attention to ways in which their technical decisions can clarify their artistic intentions in representing a person. Course fee charged per term. Prerequisite: ART 138 or permission of the instructor.  RP
MW 10:30am-12:20pm

ART 379b, Form For Content in Large Format  Benjamin Donaldson

A course for experienced photography students to become more deeply involved with the important technical and aesthetic aspects of the medium, including a concentrated study of operations and conceptual thinking required in the use of loaned analog view cameras, added lighting and advanced printing techniques. Scanning and archival printing of negatives are included. Student work is discussed in regular rigorous critiques. Review of significant historic photographic traditions is covered. Students are encouraged to employ any previous digital training although this class is primarily analog. Prerequisite: ART 237 or permission of instructor.  RP
TTh 10:30am-12:20pm

ART 401b, Photography Project Seminar  Lisa Kereszi

A further exploration of the practice of photography through a sustained, singular project executed in a consistent manner over the course of the semester, either by analog or digital means. Student work is discussed in regular critiques, the artist statement is discussed, and lectures are framed around the aesthetic concerns that the students’ work provokes. Students are exposed to contemporary issues though visits to Yale’s collections and in lectures by guest artists, and are asked to consider their own work within a larger context. Students must work with the technical skills they have already gained in courses that are the pre-reqs, as this is not a skills-based class. Required of art majors concentrating in photography. Prerequisites: ART 136 or 138 and preferably, 237, 338 or 379, or permission of the instructor. ART 136 for those working in analog and, for those working digitally, ART 138.  RP
MW 10:30am-12:20pm

ART 812b, The Assignment: Photography, Context, and Response from Classrooms to Commissions  John Pilson

Photographers continue to find themselves navigating the multiplicity of “contexts” their medium inhabits. This course examines various historical and contemporary examples of photographic “call and response” wherein artists find their way within both the obstacles and the opportunities presented to them by clients, curators, and editors, and (as students and teachers) within various pedagogical models. Through lectures, individual case studies, and student presentations we look to examples of authorship, artistic integrity, self-reflectivity, the exceeding of expectations, and convention-defying subversions that might just as readily be deployed within the context of a fashion spread as a museum, biennale, or government commission for an original work.  3 Course cr
W 10am-1pm

ART 821a, Core Curriculum II  Elle Pérez

Adapted from Tod Papageorge’s course of the same name, Core Curriculum II is a seminar course that explores the relationship between form and content in photographs and photographic seeing. We utilize methods of close looking and visual thinking strategies to study seminal photographic work ranging from the historic to the contemporary. Students are asked to reflect first through individual writing responses and then through student-led discussions in class. Each student has the opportunity to design and lead a class section that reflects their questions about the medium.  3 Course cr
M 2pm-5pm

ART 822a, Practice and Production  Benjamin Donaldson

For first-year photography students. Structured to give students a comprehensive working knowledge of the digital workflow, this course addresses everything from capture to process to print. Students explore procedures in film scanning and raw image processing, discuss the importance of color management, and address the versatility of inkjet printing. Working extensively with Photoshop, students use advanced methods in color correction and image processing, utilizing the medium as a means of refining and clarifying one’s artistic language. Students are expected to incorporate these techniques when working on their evolving photography projects and are asked to bring work to class on a regular basis for discussion and review.  3 Course cr
Th 1:30pm-4:30pm

ART 823a, Critical Perspectives in Photography  Staff

For second-year photography students. This class is team-taught by curators and critics, who approach photography from a wide variety of vantage points, to examine critical issues in contemporary photography. The class is taught both in New Haven and New York at various museums and art institutions. The course is designed to help students formulate their thesis projects and exhibitions.  3 Course cr
Th 3:30pm-6:30pm

ART 825b, What Makes a Book Work?  Lesley Martin

Open to second-year students only. This class surveys the landscape of the contemporary photobook with a focus on producing a class book.  3 Course cr
Th 3:30pm-6:30pm

ART 828a and ART 829b, This Means Something: Picture Makers Discuss Their Work and Practice  Staff

Each week, a guest artist working in a variety of disciplines addresses the cohort in whatever format they prefer—a round table discussion, conversation, or presentation— sharing experiences, insights, practice, and personal trajectory. The schedule of guest lecturers is student curated.  3 Course cr per term
W 3:30pm-5:30pm

ART 831b, Picture Show: Thesis in Photography  Lisa Kereszi

This required course supports the M.F.A. Photography thesis exhibition through attending to the logistics of the gallery exhibition as well as the development of programmatic elements that extend the show to audiences beyond Yale. Studio visits initiate conversations about the installation of physical work in addition to considering the documentation possibilities that allow the work to reach a wider audience, including editing and completing the portfolio and artist statement for its permanent home in Special Collections. The course introduces practical and conceptual considerations for exhibiting one’s work publicly and includes professional development resources and presentations for a life after Yale that sustains a lens-based practice, including an artist statement writing workshop, as well as group planning meetings and meetings with curators, gallery and museum professionals from Yale and further afield. Enrollment limited to second-year students in photography.  3 Course cr
M 2pm-5pm

ART 844a and ART 845b, Critique Panel  Staff

Each week, four students present work for open review by a rotating faculty panel of artists, curators, and critics. Work can be presented as photographic prints, installation, video, performance, or in any other interpretation. Each student has two slots per term in addition to a final review twice a year.  6 Course cr per term
T 3:30pm-7:30pm

ART 887b, The Edit, With Kathy Ryan  Kathleen Ryan

This course offers a rare opportunity to learn about editorial visual storytelling from Kathy Ryan, award-winning director of photography of the New York Times Magazine. The course explores the intersections of art, reportage, photojournalism, and other forms of editorial photography from concept, assignment, story budget, deadlines, thinking outside the box, finding unexpected angles or voices, and how photographs can shape a publication, its theme, and cover design. Ryan has worked at the New York Times Magazine since 1985, and has had an unprecedented tenure as director of photography since 1987. Ryan has shaped and challenged the way stories can be seen, imagined, and experienced emotionally. The course meets twelve times and includes some off-campus field trips, special guests, and inside views of the process.  3 Course cr
F 2pm-5pm

ART 891a, Eye and Ear  Vinson Cunningham

This seminar is designed to help M.F.A. students incorporate writing into their practice and find language fit to introduce their work to the wider world. Students read and discuss works by writers and artists like Chantal Ackerman, John Cage, Joan Didion, Annie Ernaux, Jenny Holzer, Donald Judd, Barbara Kruger, Glenn Ligon, Frank O’ Hara, Georges Perec, Faith Ringgold, and Zadie Smith—all in service of exploring themes and techniques including description, portraiture, eulogy, argument, appropriation, public address, and personal narrative. Through a series of in-class prompts and take-home assignments, students also create, discuss, and refine writing projects of their own choosing.  3 Course cr
W 10am-1pm