Course Syllabus

ART 1050 Basic Photography

Course Description

Basic Photography is a general education course designed for non-art major students who wish to expand their creative and technical ability in digital photography. Students will explore the making and meaning of images through hands-on camera work and critique. Emphasis is placed on the development of creative expression and photography as a fine art medium. Topics include camera operation, use of light, image editing, formal aesthetics, historical perspectives, conceptual approaches, exhibition presentation, and a final portfolio. Camera equipment is available for student use. A program fee is required.

Justification

Basic Photography serves as an introduction to the digital visual language and is foundational to understanding basic image concepts and practices in the Fine Arts. This course is offered on campuses across the country in similar formats and throughout the USHE system.

General Education Outcomes

1. A student who completes the GE curriculum has a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world. Upon successful completion of this course, students will have expanded creative abilities, heightened cultural and natural sensibilities, and an informed vocabulary of the visual arts. Students will be able to use photography to communicate different human cultural experiences to help build connections to the natural environment in the modern world. They will also have a practical understanding of media-based tools to communicate these ideas.
2. A student who completes the GE curriculum can read and research effectively within disciplines. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to responsibly conduct research on creative photographers, photographic genres and movements, and different photographic processes in the creative visual arts field.
3. A student who completes the GE curriculum can draw from multiple disciplines to address complex problems. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to navigate in an interdisciplinary manner using several skill sets such as (1) conveying meaning and intention through purposeful rhetorical choices, (2) communicating verbally and negotiating with subjects throughout the creative process, (3) applying technical problem-solving skills with equipment. The making of photographic images involves the continual analysis and response to situational environments, psychological conditions, human interaction, and technical parameters.
4. A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to critically evaluate a variety of artworks. Students will be able to respond to a work of art in an articulate manner with educated reasoning. Students will understand dynamic strategies for successfully approaching oral and written critique that analyzes historic media, the creative work of their peers and contemporaries.

General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes

1. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to identify and utilize the technical aspects of camera operation continuously and across multiple unique contexts. Students will also be able to describe the formal elements and principles of design to create images that incorporate the visual language and convey the human experience through the process of dyadic intention and audience awareness. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to identify and utilize the technical aspects of camera operation continuously and across multiple unique contexts. Students will also be able to describe the formal elements and principles of design to create images that incorporate the visual language and convey the human experience through the process of dyadic intention and audience awareness.
2. APPRECIATE: Apply artistic concepts and ideas drawn from traditions of artistic creation and theory to better engage with, analyze and understand a creative work. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to critically analyze and interpret photographic works of art while examining contextual, conceptual, and formal qualities using the language and terminology of medium.
3. CONNECT: Examine connections between art and society and articulate how the arts are a historical and cultural phenomenon.  Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate how movements created by notable historical and contemporary photographers have shaped important aspects of society including (but not limited to) (1) social justice, (2) identity creation, (3) political and cultural ideologies, and (4) fundamental art concepts and practices. Students will also be able to incorporate these principles into their artistic production.

Course Content

This class will include lectures, discussions, critiques, and applied projects as they apply to the following topics in photography: formal aesthetics, camera operation, the use of light, image editing software, field techniques, exhibition presentation, historical and contemporary movements in photography, and analysis of contemporary works of art. Students will complete a culminating final portfolio designed to explore their personal creative practice.