winter Photo Assignment –
American history has been made by migration – the journeying of people from one place to another as they sought to better their lives. Migration narratives are a quintessentially American literary genre where people make meaning of their onward choices and experience.
This quarter, we’ll use BW film photography to interpret and represent our own lives as journeys of migration. We’ll borrow the literary conventions of the migration narrative to explore our personal identities and stories – and place ourselves in the living stream of historical time.
We’ll portray the “chapters” in our lives, the periods of relative stability that have come and gone for us over time. We’ll compose images to represent both the chapters and the moments of juncture that moved us from one to the next.
Like the storyboard for a movie, or the panels of a graphic novel, we’ll re-create and symbolize significant times, people, and events in our lives. We’ll explore personal and national themes. We’ll compose, shoot, and print in series, with equal parts imagination and technical care.
Production Schedule –
Weeks 2-5 – two contacts sheets and two clean prints per week.
Week 6 – edit (choose) shots for a final portfolio.
Weeks 7-9 – print 3 sets of 3 shots each for the portfolio.
Week 10 – show the portfolio.
Elements of Style –
- Contrast
- Texture
- Symmetry
- Reflections
- Bright light
- Diffuse light
Elements of Composition –
- Rule of thirds
- Dominant focal points using leading lines
- Up, down, side angles to suggest motion or time
Our finished portfolios will be done on time. They’ll contain clean negatives and prints with proper exposure and development. They’ll tell our stories and reflect adequate time and focus on our work. Written contents for explanation and/or transition are encouraged but not required (by zombies).
