Photography

In the photographic art world today, exciting new forms of print production have expanded expressive choices for artists, often combining processes from the earliest days of photography with the latest advances in digital media. In this course, students will explore a number of vintage and experimental photographic processes, including cyanotype, wet collodion, platinum/paladium printing, albumen, gum bichromate and liquid light. The goal of the course is to broaden the student's repertoire of photographic printmaking techniques and allow for experimentation with hybrid forms that combine old and new methods in innovative ways.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $200.00

Elective; sophomore and above

Deposit for non-majors: $100.00

A Collaborative Study Project (CSP) allows two students to work collaboratively to complete a faculty supervised project of independent study.

Usually, a CSP is supervised by two faculty members, but with approval it may be supervised by one faculty member. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses, though it is not a substitute for a course if that course is regularly offered.

What does 'research' mean for contemporary photographers? For artists using photography within their practice? This hands-on studio course investigates and critiques the nature and scope of research and its practical application to current practice, and how research provides a critical context to help develop awareness, extend subject knowledge, and inform the creation of new artistic work. We will learn through current case studies, unpicking what kinds of processes photographers use when making work. We will investigate to what extent individual practices differ and what analogies can be drawn across those practices. We will look at the roles of instinct and serendipity in allowing for other ideas to emerge. You will develop and hone your own research methods through a wide variety of experimental making and writing assignments, and through critique. This course is also a research project in itself, bringing together examples of photographic practice for you to ponder and engage into our own ideas, processes, and projects.

Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00

Open to junior and above.

Open to non-major as an elective.

This course is designed to give junior majors a thorough and deep understanding of the intermediate-level workflow for film capture and scanning and digital camera RAW file capture. Both workflows allow students to produce the highest quality inkjet prints on large-format printers. This course will touch on many topics, including advanced tonal and color correction techniques, image sharpening, digital camera exposure and Raw file processing, inkjet and Lightjet printing and automated batch file processing. While this course is primarily technical, students are expected to pursue their ongoing personal work to fulfill assignments, culminating in a final portfolio of 10 finished digital prints that demonstrate mastery of the techniques learned in the course. Students entering the course should be proficient in the use of the Macintosh platform and basic Photoshop operations and have a good understanding of processing and printing in black and white photography. Transfer majors must demonstrate these proficiencies to the satisfaction of the department before being permitted to enroll in this course.

Major requirement

Open to non-majors by permission of Instructor.

Deposit for non-majors: $100.00

This course combines an overview of the history, theory, political influences, trends of expression and a survey of past and contemporary artists working in the field, with the opportunity for students to put theoretical study into practice through assignments that aid in the development of one's own project. In weekly critiques of student documentary work including journals that record one's process and self - reflection, we will explore the process, grapple with ideological issues that arise, and challenge each other to push our understanding and the development of a documentary language further.

Elective; sophomore and above

Open to non-majors

Deposit for non-majors: $100.00

In this intensive independent studio students continue and complete the work began in "EHP Studio Elective", culminating in the final exhibition and review. It corresponds to the remaining four weeks of the program, after students have finished with their Art History and Italian classes.

Note: EHP credits replace the on-campus major requirements for the term students attend. Distribution to non-major requirements occurs when major credits are not needed.

Independent studio is at the core of the EHP experience. Upon arrival, students are assigned studio space at the Palazzetto Cenci, home of RISD's program in Rome. With guidance from the chief critic, each student develops a personal body of work sparked by his/her interactions with places, people and circumstances in Rome and other locations that are part of the EHP tours (such as the Northern, Southern or Eastern tours, as well as other shorter trips.) The work takes as a point of departure knowledge and techniques specific to individual home departments, but allows, and even encourages, explorations beyond disciplinary boundaries, including collaborations and cross-fertilization within a group of students from different departments working together.

Beyond consistent and thorough engagement with studio work, requirements include participation in open studios and exhibitions, presentations in reviews, and attendance to all group activities and events, such as lectures at the Cenci and other institutions. From time to time, the chief critic may issue short assignments to introduce or focus on a particular subject. As part of the studio elective, students may be encouraged to keep sketchbooks and/or diaries, participate in optional activities--such as figure drawing sessions--and search for brief internships, apprenticeships, or other forms of interactions with local artists, designers, curators and critics.

EHP Studio Elective corresponds to the first twelve weeks of the program, while students are also taking Art History and Italian classes. This course establishes the direction for the work in the "Studio Concentration" course that follows.

Note: EHP credits replace the on-campus major requirements for the term students attend. Distribution to non-major requirements occurs when major credits are not needed.

This course is an ongoing discussion of individual work with special reference to current issues and concerns in contemporary art. Each student will be required to show and discuss work. Grades by participation.

Graduate major requirement; Photo Grad students only

Registration by Photo Department, course not available via web registration.

This course is an ongoing discussion of individual work with special reference to current issues and concerns in contemporary art. Each student will be required to show and discuss work. Grades by participation.

Graduate major requirement; Photo Grad students only

Registration by Photo department, course not available via web registration

Part I of a two-semester course that will survey major topics in the Histories of Photography. Emphasis will be given to the diverse cultural uses of photography from its invention to the present day. Such uses include: the illustrated press; amateur photography; studio photography; industrial, advertising, and fashion photography; political and social propaganda; educational and documentary photography; and photography as a medium of artistic expression. Much attention will be paid to how photographs construct histories, as well as being constructed by them.

Major requirement; Photo majors

Liberal Arts elective credit for non-majors pending seat availability.

The Independent Study Project (ISP) allows students to supplement the established curriculum by completing a faculty supervised project for credit in a specific area of interest. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses.

Permission of Instructor and GPA of 3.0 or higher is required.

Register by completing the Independent Study Application available on the Registrar's website; the course is not available via web registration.

This course is designed for nonmajors who have taken Intro to Photo for Non-Majors and who wish to continue in photography and develop their own individual approach to the medium.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $200.00

Elective

Deposit for non-majors: $100.00

In this course, students will be introduced to the basic principles of digitally capturing, processing, and printing photographs that are really worth making. We'll cover all the important functions that most digital cameras have in common and we'll go through the fundamentals of using Photoshop to refine and manipulate images. Students will learn their cameras' controls well enough to use the manual settings with confidence, and how to make the automatic features work for them instead of against them. We'll consider what makes a good photograph both technically and creatively, and we'll critique prints made on the Photo department's high-quality Epson printers. Students will need to provide their own digital camera with raw capture capability (DSLR or equivalent), and a portable hard drive (formatted for Mac), both of which they should bring to the first class. (Hard drives will be needed before week 2.) Students registered for the course who are in the market for a new camera are welcome to contact the professor for camera purchasing advice.

Open to undergraduate and graduate students

This is a basic course in the techniques of photographic seeing. Students will be given exercises to develop their ideas concerning the fundamental visual problems of photography. Students will also learn technical aspects of exposure, developing and printing in the darkroom as they explore and respond to the visual qualities of the medium. Students must provide their own 35mm camera with manual controls.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $200.00

Elective

Fee for non-photo majors: $100.00 Deposit: $100.00

The Junior Studio continues the process begun in the Sophomore Studio but moves it to a more ambitious and sustained level of production and critical feedback. Students will be expected to work more autonomously and will explore their ideas with more focus and depth, with the goal of working toward the successful production of several bodies of work over the course of the year. Group and individual critiques will continue to form the basis of the course curriculum, supplemented by visiting critics, field trips and class exercises. Attendance at all departmental visiting artist lectures is required.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $200.00

Major requirement; Photo majors only.

Registration by Photography Department, course not available via web registration.

This course provides majors with a fundamental understanding of the differences between film-based photography and digital imaging and introduces students to the underlying principles, languages and tools of electronic media. Students will learn key concepts in digital imaging such as modes of data capture, file management, processing workflow, color management, resolution, 'non-destructive' image processing, film scanning and inkjet printing. This course will show students how to strategically tailor software tools to their own specific imagery and workflow needs.

Students will need their own digital or film cameras for this course.

Elective

Deposit for non-majors: $100.00

This course registers an outgoing exchange student into a pre-approved PHOTO studio course which is taken at the exchange school. Successful completion of the course will result in a "T" grade once receipt of the official transcript from the partner school has arrived at Registrar's Office.

This hands-on interdisciplinary studio course, suited to undergraduate and graduate students, involves 'playing with pictures' in an imaginative, conceptual, exploratory and intelligent way. We will investigate the collection, curation, indexation and juxtaposition of visual images from a wider range of sources. We will consider how new personal, social and political meanings can be generated from different materials; this will be framed by critically reviewing the work of contemporary artists who use different modes and methods of collecting in their practice. We will explore the ways in which images, objects, documents and traces inform history, testimony and identity. Through this course, students will create a personalized depository of images from which to draw for future art and design projects. Examining rules and processes for collecting; how such rules can be bent or broken; and how collections of images are interpreted and understood is a core thematic. Class time will include lectures, screenings, debates, creative thinking activities, critique and presentations.

Fee for non-majors: $35.00

The professional Internship provides valuable exposure to a professional setting, enabling students to better establish a career path and define practical aspirations. Internship proposals are carefully vetted to determine legitimacy and must meet the contact hour requirements listed in the RISD Course Announcement.

How can queerness as an "oppositional relation to the norm" (David Halperin, 1995) inform and challenge the photographic practice? Queering photography is a seminar/studio course that will examine how queer artists have utilized photography and how these practices can inform our own making. This course will survey different aspects of queerness such as DIY culture, representation, performance, and more theoretical notions, like "queer time". We will ask ourselves, is it possible to subvert photographic norms? How can our photographic practice be informed by an ever-shifting notion of queerness? Through a series of lectures and peer artist reviews, we will look at artists whose practices are informed by queerness, including Yasumasa Morimura, Zanele Muholi, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and Ren Hang. We will have class discussions, studio assignments, critiques, and share our technical, conceptual and personal knowledge.

Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00

The Senior Studio brings together the advanced skills and ideas about image-making that each student in the major has developed over the previous two years. Students are expected to work independently on their individual projects with the expectation of a culminating body of work to be presented in a public exhibition during the spring semester (Degree Project). As in Junior Studio, group and individual critiques with faculty and visiting artists will continue to form the basis of the course curriculum. Attendance at all departmental visiting artist lectures is required.

Estimated Materials Cost: $200.00 - $250.00

Major requirement; Photo majors only.

Registration by Photography Department, course not available via web registration.

The Sophomore Studio is focused on the of each student's expressive vision so that she/he can create photographs with compelling content. Through group critiques and individual meetings with the instructor, students will refine their skills as photographers and learn how to verbally articulate issues in their own work as well as the work of others. The greater part of the class will geared towards creating an open an dynamic environment where students engage in the give and take of constructive feedback on their progress. The critique schedule will be enriched by readings, multimedia lectures and class field trips throughout the semester. Attendance at all department visiting artist lectures is required.

Major requirement; Photo majors

Registration by Photo Department, course not available via web registration.

Open to non-majors as an elective.

Permission of Instructor required.

Over a period of five weeks, students will come to know well the magnificent city of Paris with its abundant museums, significant architecture, atmospheric parks and intimate cafes. Paris and its environs will be the catalyst for inspiring students of all levels of photography to begin or to continue to develop technical skills and to explore personal visions.

In discussions on the work of past and contemporary photographers, in-group critiques which investigate "learning how to see" and how to create "good" photographs, and in individual meetings, students are encourage to respond in unique ways to photographic problems.

The class begins with the use of film and the black and white analog darkroom. Students are encouraged to have a 35mm SLR film camera or larger. Using film and the 35mm camera as the beginning tool for employing the visual language of art, students will process film and print in the well-appointed and maintained facility of the Photography Studies in France (Speos). Once everyone has worked in the darkroom, we will move onto working with digital cameras and it is hoped that students will have a DSLR. In support of the digital part of the class there will be classes in Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop and a special class in creating a perfect file for output at a lab. The Speos building is located in the 11th arrondisement of Paris near the Bastille. In addition, field trips outside the city will introduce students to the countryside, as well as afford further photographic opportunities. The study of photography in Paris is sure to have an impact on the creative life of a student at any level of photography in immeasurable ways!

Registration begins in October at a time to be announced.

All students are required to remain in good academic standing in order to participate in the WS travel course/studio. A minimum gpa of 2.5 is required. Failure to remain in good academic standing can lead to removal from the course, either before or during the course. Also in cases where WS travel courses and studios do not reach student capacity, the course may be cancelled after the last day of Wintersession travel course registration. As such, all students are advised not to purchase flights for participation in Wintersession travel courses until the course is confirmed to run, which happens within the week after the final Wintersession travel course registration period.

Permission of Instructor required.

Open to first year students with approval from the Dean of Experimental and Foundation Studies.

2020WS Estimated Travel Cost: $5,580.00 - airfare not included.

***Off-Campus Study***

A Collaborative Study Project (CSP) allows two students to work collaboratively to complete a faculty supervised project of independent study.

Usually, a CSP is supervised by two faculty members, but with approval it may be supervised by one faculty member. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses, though it is not a substitute for a course if that course is regularly offered.

How do you express ideas in a thoughtful, and captivating way? Constructing Images is a course that will allow students to explore different techniques of producing imagery and a unique approache to storytelling through photography. In finding new ways to tell stories, students will examine the work of both contemporary and historical artists working with imaginative story telling methods and keep a personal record of their explorations. Students will approach a subject creatively and discover a new form of relation to the subject they want to explore. Through lectures, visiting artists and group critiques students will explore alternative methods to displaying work, research image makers and demonstrate a new understanding of creating. At the end of the course students will have a unique body of work ranfing in alternative technqiues and storytelling.

Estimated Materials Cost: $200.00

By turning the camera on oneself, the student will investigate and focus on the body, psyche, subjectivity, objectiveness and the representation of self. Looking at oneself through a camera can lead to a self-discovery and heightened awareness, helping to understand ourselves better,and our relation to the system/context we function in. By repetitive turn of the camera at the self, photographers can reconsider many issues concerning their identity. This can trigger creation of work that comes into conversation with status quo of the roles we are formed in different situations/scenarios and our inner needs and desires. Through weekly presentations students will find a common understanding, due to conversations of what viewers see and what an artist was focused on during the photography process, of how the self is represented. As a result students will develop a body of work, pushing boundaries of personal and social awareness.

Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00

The Independent Study Project (ISP) allows students to supplement the established curriculum by completing a faculty supervised project for credit in a specific area of interest. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses.

Permission of Instructor and GPA of 3.0 or higher is required.

Register by completing the Independent Study Application available on the Registrar's website; the course is not available via web registration.

The Independent Study Project (ISP) allows students to supplement the established curriculum by completing a faculty supervised project for credit in a specific area of interest. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses.

Permission of Instructor and GPA of 3.0 or higher is required.

Register by completing the Independent Study Application available on the Registrar's website; the course is not available via web registration.

In this course, students will be introduced to the basic principles of digitally capturing, processing, and printing photographs that are really worth making. We'll cover all the important functions that most digital cameras have in common and we'll go through the fundamentals of using Photoshop to refine and manipulate images. Students will learn their cameras' controls well enough to use the manual settings with confidence, and how to make the automatic features work for them instead of against them. We'll consider what makes a good photograph both technically and creatively, and we'll critique prints made on the Photo department's high-quality Epson printers. Students will need to provide their own digital camera with raw capture capability (DSLR or equivalent), and a portable hard drive (formatted for Mac), both of which they should bring to the first class. (Hard drives will be needed before week 2.) Students registered for the course who are in the market for a new camera are welcome to contact the professor for camera purchasing advice.

Open to undergraduate and graduate students

A study of basic photography as a visual language with an emphasis on the medium as a means of personal expression. Using 35mm cameras, students will investigate the techniques of seeing through the production of photographic negatives and prints. Assignments will be given to develop the students' awareness of the fundamental elements of tone, texture, light and form as conditioned by the technical possibilities inherent in the photographic medium.

Students must specify section number on registration form.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $200.00 Deposit: $100.00

Open to Undergraduate and Graduate Students

This class serves as an introduction to photographic methods and ideas. Through this, we will be exploring the creative possibilities of both traditional and digital photographic technologies. First and foremost, this course is about creative exploration in photography. Technical skills mean nothing if not paired with imagination, and this course will aim to develop both. Throughout the semester, the instructor will consistently be pushing towards an integration of these new technical skills with the interests and ideas that are important to you as an individual. Using film cameras and complimentary digital tools, students will address the essential technical, conceptual, and artistic problems that have been associated with photography since its birth, as well as some of the new issues that have arisen with the advent of digital imaging. Through a combination of assignments and critiques, in-class exercises, and artists' talks, students will question what they know about the medium and its potential. At a time when photography's popularity and ubiquity has challenged its relevance as a fine art form, this course will explore the photographic image as a powerful and versatile tool for contemporary artistic self-expression.

Deposit: $100.00

This is a course all photo majors should take to help launch their careers, whatever the specialty-fine art, fashion, commercial, editorial. Classes will include lectures and instruction by the professor and outside experts, covering the breadth of issues professional photographers face, such as building their portfolio, promoting their work, finding jobs, keeping financial records, and legal issues, such as copyright, and model releases.

The core of the class involves field trips to visit artists and other photography professionals in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Those visited include many RISD photo graduates who have gone on to make careers in photography, and others who have something to teach about the many issues facing contemporary photographers.

Note that the schedule of the class varies somewhat from most Wintersession classes because it includes a five-day trip to New York and Philadelphia, during the fourth week of Wintersession. The exact schedule will be available before registration opens.

Open to all majors.

Permission of Instructor required.

The professional Internship provides valuable exposure to a professional setting, enabling students to better establish a career path and define practical aspirations. Internship proposals are carefully vetted to determine legitimacy and must meet the contact hour requirements listed in the RISD Course Announcement.

Over the past decade, photography books have seen a resurgence within the art world, this time transcending their original use as survey or catalog to become ideal spaces and platforms to experience and disseminate work. Today image-based printed matter functions in a multitude of ways, all of which at their core are driven by the mechanics of sequence and editing. Through class discussions, using RISD's Fleet Library and Special Collections, and individual research - students will form a personal vision of what images mean in the book form. Our focus will be equally on content, concept, production & technique. The semester will culminate in each student having devised, sequenced, edited and produced a fully resolved and realized photography book.

Estimated Materials Cost: $125.00

In this interdisciplinary studio course, students will become familiar with storytelling and narrative structure while experimenting with fundamental techniques in photography, filmmaking and sound design. In order to learn how the visual and auditory arts can be used to tell stories, students will be introduced to a wide range of narrative approaches through still images, interviews, soundscapes and moving images. Students will be challenged to consider what their art says, what stories they want to tell, and how to effectively communicate those stories. The course will include a combination of lectures, discussions, individual projects and workshops.

Students will be able to synchronize various media to tell stories, including still photography, sound recording and filmmaking. They will learn essential techniques in photo editing, sound editing and video editing. Students will leave the class with not only technical skills, but new perspectives on what it means to tell a story through art, and how to encounter visual and audio narratives.

Estimated Materials Cost: $100.00

Elective; sophomore and above.

Deposit for non-majors: $100.00

This course is an ongoing discussion of individual work with special reference to current issues and concerns in contemporary art. Each student will be required to show and discuss work. Grades by participation.

Graduate major requirement; Photo Grad students only

Registration by Photo Department, course not available via web registration.

This course is an ongoing discussion of individual work with special reference to current issues and concerns in contemporary art. Each student will be required to show and discuss work. Grades by participation.

Graduate major requirement; Photo Grad students only

Registration by Photo Department, course not available via web registration.

A Graduate Thesis is to be determined in consultation with faculty advisor by the beginning of the first semester of the second year.

Graduate major requirement; Photo Grad students only

Registration by Photo Department, course not available via web registration.

This period is dedicated to the development and presentation of a body of work supported by a written thesis in consultation with the student's Thesis Committee. The final exhibition and written thesis will be evaluated by the Thesis Committee which will submit a final grade to the Graduate Coordinator.

Graduate major requirement; Photo Grad students only

Registration by Photo Department, course not available via web registration.

Part II of a two-semester course that will survey major topics in the Histories of Photography. Emphasis will be given to the diverse cultural uses of photography from its invention to the present day. Such uses include: the illustrated press; amateur photography; studio photography; industrial; advertising, and fashion photography; political and social propaganda; educational and documentary photography; and photography as a medium of artistic expression. Much attention will be paid to how photographs construct histories, as well as being constructed by them.

Major requirement; Photo majors

Liberal Arts elective credit for non-majors pending seat availability.

Through careful attention to the problems of image-making, this class will attempt a collective reframing of anxiety as a tool for developing criticality and social engagement. Over the course of the semester, we will look at the intersections of photography, performance and activism, using collaborative exercises and group reading to make (and learn from) art that addresses hierarchies of institutional and societal power. Drawing from short readings by Hito Steyerl, Adrian Piper, Sara Ahmed, Jalal Toufic, Frantz Fanon, Ariella Azoulay and Susan Sontag, students are invited to consider the politics of material, experience and form as they relate to their own studio practices, and to build a sense of direction that will inform their roles as artists within a global community. Students will be assessed on their participation, responses to short writing exercises, and visual prompts.

Estimated Materials Cost: $40.00

Elective; sophomore and above.

The Independent Study Project (ISP) allows students to supplement the established curriculum by completing a faculty supervised project for credit in a specific area of interest. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses.

Permission of Instructor and GPA of 3.0 or higher is required.

Register by completing the Independent Study Application available on the Registrar's website; the course is not available via web registration.

The Independent Study Project (ISP) allows students to supplement the established curriculum by completing a faculty supervised project for credit in a specific area of interest. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses.

Permission of Instructor and GPA of 3.0 or higher is required.

Register by completing the Independent Study Application available on the Registrar's website; the course is not available via web registration.

This is a basic course in the techniques of photographic seeing. Students will be given exercises to develop their ideas concerning the fundamental visual problems of photography. Students will also learn technical aspects of exposure, developing and printing in the darkroom as they explore and respond to the visual qualities of the medium. Students must provide their own 35mm camera with manual controls.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $200.00

Elective

Fee for non-photo majors: $100.00 Deposit: $100.00

A continuation of Photo 5305 allowing junior level majors to investigate their image making concerns in depth. Class time will be used to critique work in progress.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $200.00

Major requirement

Registration by Photography Department, course not available via web registration.

This studio course is designed to help students slow down and become more contemplative with their photographic practice. This darkroom based course will give students ultimate compositional control as they learn to use the large format camera. Topics covered will include using the view camera's tilt, swing, shift and rise movements to control focus, perspective and image shape. Student will also learn film exposure techniques and advanced black and white printing controls. Later in the course students will be introduced to large format digital scanning and printing workflows.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $500.00

Major elective; junior and above

Open to non-majors by permission of Instructor.

Deposit for non-majors: $100.00

This course will focus on basic lighting techniques and principles that will provide students with the skills necessary to feel comfortable in a variety of lighting situations. Students will not only gain an understanding of how light can be manipulated and controlled but also how it can be used to communicate information. The course will serve as an introduction to the studio and to various kinds of tungsten and strobe equipment.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $200.00

Major elective

Open to juniors and above

Open to non-majors by permission of Instructor.

Fee for non-photo majors: $100.00 Deposit: $100.00

This course registers an outgoing exchange student into a pre-approved PHOTO studio course which is taken at the exchange school. Successful completion of the course will result in a "T" grade once receipt of the official transcript from the partner school has arrived at Registrar's Office.

This six-credit course is designed to provide the necessary production time for the realization of the Degree Project, culminating in a well-organized and installed public exhibition of a project or body of work in the department's Red Eye Gallery. The Degree Project must be approved by photography faculty and accompanied by a written Degree Project Thesis. Attendance at all departmental visiting artist lectures is required.

Major requirement; Photo majors only

Registration by Photography Department, course not available via web registration.

A continuation of PHOTO-5302, providing an open and dynamic environment where sophomore can create photographs and engage in constructive feedback on their progress.

Major Requirement; Photo majors

Open to non-majors as an elective.

Permission of Instructor required.

This course is designed for art students looking to transition into the creative economy. As the worlds of art and commerce increasingly co-mingle, we will explore how a RISD education and skill set is marketable beyond academia and the gallery world. This hands-on course will include making a business plan, building a brand, finding and dealing with clients, and managing estimates, invoices, taxes, and insurance. Through practical in-class exercises, guest lectureers, readings and assignment work, we will address the risks and rewards of making a living as an artist/entrepreneur.

Elective

Open to junior and above

What is photography? What does it do, influence, affect, position, package, demand, suppress, communicate, radicalize? This course is designed to provide students entering the photography department with an overview of contemporary thinking and practice in lens-based media. It considers photography's impact on our culture and our lives. We need, use, and react to photographs in their many forms for many reasons: this is the spine of the course. Lectures, debates, in-class activities, and screenings will familiarize students with an expansive range of genres, working methods, subject/content, and critical issues relevant to contemporary practice. The focus of this course is on work produced within the last 30 to 40 years. Lectures are organized around major themes and approaches. Critical thinking and analysis of images will be encouraged through assignments that ask students to read and respond to photographs.

Major requirement; Photo majors

Open to non-majors by permission of Instructor.

Registration by Photo Departent, course not available via web registration.

With the advent of digital image capture, the photograph, as digital data, has become an infinitely malleable unit of meaning that can be reconstituted to form sequences and transformations. Not only can it be a still print-object, but it can be a projection of light on any number of surfaces, an informational component in a screen-based narrative, or one visual element among many in an environmental installation. Students will explore the dynamic intersections between moving and still; timeless and time-driven; simultaneous and sequential imaging. They will learn how to move data fluidly among different programs and to work from a broader "systems-level" perspective - a necessity in the context of today's rapidly changing software platforms.

Elective

Open to sophomore and above.

Deposit for non-majors: $100.00