PG100 INTRODUCTION TO PHOTOGRAPHY IES MILAN Syllabus ...

PG100 INTRODUCTION TO PHOTOGRAPHY
IES MILAN Syllabus
DESCRIPTION: Critical, theoretical, and practical aspects of creative photography through camera work
and printing in a digital workflow. Field work and digital darkroom practice. Emphasis on individual work
and expressive development through photographic means. Photographer as passeggero in Italy and
abroad, with art-historic precedents; confrontation with artworks as influences in and beyond
photography, historic and contemporary. Visits to exhibition spaces, field studies to points of visual
interest, as event schedules and pragmatics permit. Digital camera required. Attendance at first class
required. Lab fee required. (3 credits)
INSTRUCTOR: Bob Tyson www.see.to.it/pg100/index.html
PREREQUISITE: Commitment to engage photography as expressive medium. No academic course
prerequisite. Working knowledge of Windows and Macintosh printing and file operations is assumed.
METHOD OF PRESENTATION: Weekly photographic assignments and bi-weekly in-class print critiques;
disciplined practice of photographic development and printmaking, using the IES digital laboratory; slide
lectures; supplemental readings; field studies and photo-walks to visit exhibitions, and to photograph.
Elaboration and printing of photographs in color and black-and-white, using Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 in
the IES digital lab or darkroom. Personal laptop OK, specified software required and provided by student.
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: English
REQUIRED WORK AND FORM OF ASSESSMENT: Critique and lecture participation (50%), final
portfolio (50%). Work to be presented: Final portfolio of 8-12 prints plus a brief reflective essay on you
and photography; 1-3 prints for each critique; a 4-6 minute lead-in oral presentation linked to a photo
assignment or lecture theme; midterm formal print critique; final exam print preparation for class
exhibition, IES Center.
EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS REQUIRED: Digital camera. Models that support manual control
strongly encouraged. Bring camera to every class. Epson Heavyweight Matte or equivalent matte surface
inkjet paper, size A4, Notebook, Lab Fee, Euro 40.
CONTENT:
Theory and Craft
The camera, elements of digital image capture
Illustrated lectures to explore photographic art history, its antecedents and influences
Camera work and photographic vision
Field assignments to photograph
History, theory and practice of photographic technique, and the digital workflow
Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 and fine print making; fine art oriented digital inkjet printing
Color management, black and white conversion and printing
Use of the IES digital photography laboratory
Print materials and presentation
Presentation of photographs at recurring in-class critiques
Instructor review of work in progress
Brief oral presentations and written responses to technical, art-historic, and technical issues
Selected readings in critical literature
From the photographic canon
First photographs, Fox-Talbot at Lake Como 1839
Alinari collections and Walker Evans
Mulas and Giacomelli
Cartier-Bresson, Lee Friedlander
Garry Winogrand and Leonardo’s Cenacolo
Unpublished photography from the liberation, Milan, Piazza Duomo and Piazza Loreto
Television work of Vittorio Sacco, Cindy Sherman
Giovanni Pitscheider, videographer, Marguerite Kahrl, american artist working in Italy
Eadweard Muybridge and Animal Locomotion

Examples of photo assignments
Public space and the monumental
Landscape, geometry, structures
Personification
The voyager and the journey
Interiors, the view from the window, visitations
Photo walks or field studies
Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio
Cimitero Monumentale
MediaWorld, Quarto Oggiaro (La Periferia)
Stazione Centrale
Piazza Duomo, roof of the cathedral
Sacra di San Michele, Val di Susa
Saturday markets, Isola, Scalo Porta Romana
Exhibition spaces
Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia, Florence
PAC Milano
Forma Milano
Galleria Carla Sozzani
Galerie ArteF, Zurich
Museo Ken Damy, Brescia
REQUIRED READING
Excerpts from (texts will be provided in class):
Gillo Dorfles, Kitsch: The World of Bad Taste
Roger Scruton, Kitsch and the Modern Predicament, City Journal, Winter 1999
Artisti Americani tra le Due Guerre, Pola, Scimé,Tedeschi, editors, Vita e Pensiero, Milan, 2004
Susan Sontag, On Photography, Picador USA, 2001
Rebecca Solnit, River of Shadows, Penguin, New York, 2003
RECOMMENDED READING
For tutorials and technical help with Photoshop, color management, and inkjet printing, online searches
globally and on the Adobe support and user forum web pages provide extensive information. More
specific recommendations will be available during the course.
On Milan and Italy:
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed, available in an excellent
English translation by Bruce Penman, Penguin Classics)
Paul Hofmann, That Fine Italian Hand
Tobias Jones, The Dark Heart of Italy
BIO: Bob Tyson is an American photographer who has lived in Italy since 2002. After photographing
Milan sculptor Mauro Staccioli’s work in California in 1988 he began to frequent Staccioli’s projects in
Italy, and began to see that from Italian art and life a certain significance and timelessness began to enter
his photographs. Of these sources he says, ‘The appearances of things here inform my photography with
an essence I hope will be present to those who look at my pictures.’
Bob Tyson has held artist’s residencies at The Djerassi Resident Artist Program, The Helene Wurlitzer
Foundation of New Mexico, and The Ucross Foundation, and teaches photography at Università Cattolica
del Sacro Cuore, Brescia. He majored in geology at Stanford University, then turned to photography
during a career as an engineering geologist and received the Master of Fine Arts degree from Stanford in
1986. He photographs artists’ works extensively in Italy and exhibits his work at Galerie ArteF für
Kunstfotografie, Zurich.
22 jan 2008