Contemporary Photographic Expression
Assignment #3 – Fine Art Photograph


Please hand in your window matted print in a polyethylene or polypropylene storage bag together with proof sheet(s) and this sheet.

Assignment Description:
Subject matter which is worn, when lit at a grazing angle, produces marvelous textures which many photographers in the past have been attracted to. Make one or more exquisitely crafted and visually compelling black and white silver gelatin prints 8 x 10 inches or larger that picture the pattern of decay.

Related Reading Assignment:
Beauty and Photography by Robert Adams

Assignment Objective:
The key feature of modernist formalism was to define the essential characteristics of the medium that distinguish it from other artforms. This assignment is intended to bring those special features of photography such as light and world-relatedness into sharp focus. The interest of photographers to picture the rustic ruins of their surroundings has been only one in very many approaches and sub-traditions that together we refer to as old school fine art photography. These will be elaborated in class.

Suggestions:
Your approach should be "straight." Seek to go beyond banal depiction and transcend the subject.

Evaluation Criteria:
Craftsmanship - Sharpness
Exposure (full shadow and highlight detail)
Contrast (a solid black, a bright white, and a full range of gray values)
Value (appropriate lightness / darkness)
Needs dodging and/or burning
Cleanness (no dust, water spots, scratches)
Print damage
Aesthetic / Conceptual refinement (accomplishes assignment description and meets objective)

Grade ___________


Student Name_______________________________


Teacher Comments: