ART 136a or b, 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
HTBA

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 239a, Photographic Storytelling  Danna Singer

An introductory course that explores the various elements of photographic storytelling, artistic styles, and practices of successful visual narratives. Students focus on creating original bodies of work that demonstrate their unique artistic voice. Topics include camera handling techniques, photo editing, sequencing, and photographic literacy. Student work is critiqued throughout the term, culminating in a final project. Through a series of lectures, readings and films, students are introduced to influential works in the canon of photographic history as well as issues and topics in contemporary photography.
TTh 10:30am-12:20pm

ART 338b, Contemporary Problems in Color with Digital Photography  Theodore Partin

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 1:30pm-3:20pm

ART 379b, Form For Content In Medium and 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 401a, 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
WF 1:30pm-3:20pm

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
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  Roxana Marcoci and Michelle Kuo

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, Issues in Contemporary Photography  Gregory Crewdson

A full-year course for all graduate photography students. This course explores approaches to contemporary photography, from 1975 to the present, beginning with the first generation of postmodernism. Students examine the relationship that art photography has to popular culture and the blurred relationship among photography, film, fashion, advertising, and pornography. Trends and approaches to art photography, including tableaux, appropriation, abstraction, and simulation, are studied. Students also explore how contemporary photographers have worked to challenge, expand, and reinvent such traditional genres as portraiture, the nude, landscape, and still-life photography. Visiting artists, photographers, and filmmakers talk about their work in the context of the discussions at hand.  3 Course cr per term
W 3pm-5:30pm

ART 844a and ART 845b, Individual Criticism: Photography  Gregory Crewdson

Limited to graduate photography students. Ongoing work is reviewed at weekly seminar meetings and privately.  6 Course cr per term
T 4pm-7pm

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
T 10am-1pm