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Cerritos College
Photo 252 - Photography of the Landscape Syllabus
Spring 2010
Teacher: Ed Heckerman
Room: FA 40
Office: FA 64B
class hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 4:00 - 7:00 PM
office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 3:00 - 4:00, and Tuesdays 10:00 - 11:00
office phone: (562) 860-2451 x2603
Catalog Course Description:
This course examines the interpretation of the landscape through the medium of photography. Theories of photographic approaches to the landscape and its development and industrialization are stressed. Topics include preparation for field work, film types, exposure techniques, appropriate equipment and care, and printing techniques.
Textbook
A selection of essays will be distributed.
Lab Fee: $ 20.00
Attendance
Three tardy arrivals are equivalent to an absence. Any student with more than six unexcused absences, including lab days, will be dropped. Absences due to illness, family emergencies, jury duty, and religious holidays will be excused unless excessive only if it is feasible for the student to make up the lost time. It is the student's responsibility to notify the instructor promptly of the expected dates of predictable excused absences. Also, if a student arrives fifteen or more minutes late, or leaves class early without requesting to do so for whatever reason, they will receive a half-absence. If you do not work on lab days you will be marked absent even if you are physically present.
Grading and Withdrawal Criteria:
The following factors will influence the final grade:
a. Participation, including class discussions, critiques, and attendance. Also included in this category will be effort and enthusiam, courtesy, and appropriate lab etiquette. (10%)
b. Excellence and punctuality of assignments (80%)
- Late assignments will receive one full reduced letter grade. Late assignments will not be accepted in excess of one week past the due date, except for excused absences.
- All assignments except the final project may be redone after the due date for a higher grade, but late assignments will not receive an "A" unless the student's absence on the due date was excused.
c. Workbook (10%)
For additional information on attendance and grading see the Cerritos College General Catalog.
Plagarism Statement
Representing the ideas of another as one's own is not acceptable.
Classroom Conduct
Please turn off your cell phone. Do not cause disturbances in class. Please do not chat while the teacher is lecturing and during class discussions and critiques. Make an effort to be courteous to the teacher and remain vertical during all classroom activities. Do not take extra long breaks. Please do not come to class under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol.
Darkroom Conduct
Please do not handle other student's work unless unavoidable. If you must touch another student's prints or negatives please handle them as if they were your own. Be careful to recycle the appropriate chemicals (stop bath, fixer, hypo clearing agent) when developing film. Always thoroughly wash all beakers and return all checked-out equipment clean and dry when finished. Be sure not to mix up the tongs in the darkroom trays, otherwise the next student's print will be contaminated. You will be responsible for washing and drying your own prints. If you are unsure what to do regarding any darkroom activity or cleanup procedure, ask the teacher without hesitation.
Special Needs / Disabilities
If you think you will require any special assistance please contact the Disabled Persons Programs and Services (562) 860-24511 x2333 (DSPS) office on campus immediately and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.
Materials Needed
Required:
- Camera with manual exposure possibilities (film or digital)
- Multigrade black and white fiber-base enlarging paper or digital photo paper
- Archival box for portfolio
- Archival clear envelopes and museum board for all prints
- 4 x 5 film (color or black and white) for assignment #5
Ink, darkroom chemistry and film development hardware will be supplied by the school.
Professional camera stores (a selection):
- Samy’s Camera, 585 Venice Blvd., Venice, (310) 450-4551
- Samy's Camera, 431 Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 938-2420
- Bel Air Camera, 10925 Kinross Ave. at Gayley in Westwood Village, (310) 208-5150
- Calumet, 1135 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood, CA (213) 466-1238
- Calumet, 1430 S. Village Way, Suite A, Santa Ana, (714) 285-0143
- Freestyle, 5124 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 660-3460
- Freestyle Catalog Quick Order Counter 12231 Florence Ave. Santa Fe Springs, (800) 292-6137
Class Calendar
This calendar is subject to alteration, additions, and omissions at the teacher’s discretion, including due dates for assignments. If you were absent the previous session make sure to check http://www.cerritos.edu/eheckerman/ (click on "teaching" link) for updates and revisions to the calendar. In the event that we should find ourselves ahead of schedule, a field trip to a gallery or museum housing a photo exhibition may be arranged. Please always bring film to be developed or negatives to be printed on non-lab days in case the lecture or critique ends early. Otherwise, bring in your camera so that you can use the time to take photographs.
1. 1/11/10
Prerequesites / Review of syllabus / materials needed for class
Discussion: What is a landscape? What is nature
Video clip: Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth from American Photography, A Century of Images
Reading: The Word Itself from Discovering the Vernacular Landscape by John Brinckerhoff Jackson
2. 1/13/10
Discussion of Jackson reading
Slide / Video Lecture: The Sublime, Romantic, and Picturesque in Straight and Pictorial Photography
DVD clips: Brigadoon, scene 1; The Fellowship of the Ring, scenes 18, 25-26, 34-35; Koyaanisquatsi, Life Out of Baloance, scenes 1-4, 6, 10-14
Assignment #1 explained
Reading: Fire in the Garden by Rebecca Solnit
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday
3. 1/20/10
Lecture: Exposing for the Shadows / Developing for the Highlights
How to use a 4 x 5 field camera
How to develop and print medium and large format film
4. 1/25/10
Lab
5. 1/27/10
Selinium Toning Demo
Lab
6. 2/1/10
Discussion of Solnit reading
Slide Lecture: The Beer Can School of Landscape Photography and the Lost Frontier
Assignment #2 explained
Reading: Truth and Landscape by Robert Adams
7. 2/3/10
Lab
8. 2/8/10
Lab
9. 2/10/10
Critique of Assignment #1
Lincoln's Birthday
Washington's Birthday
10. 2/22/10
Discussion of Robert Adams reading
Slide / Video Lecture: "The New Topographics" and it's Legacy
Assignment #3 explained
Reading: Introduction to the New Topographics by William Jenkins
The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature by William Cronon
11. 2/24/10
Lab
12. 3/1/10
Lab
13. 3/3/10
Discussion of Jenkins and Cronin reading
Slide / Video Lecture: Water and the West
Assignment #4 explained
14. 3/8/10
Lab
15. 3/10/10
Critique of Assignment #2
16. 3/15/10
Lab
17. 2/22/10
Lab
18. 3/24/10
Critique of Assignment #3
Assignment #5 and #6 explained
Reading: Is Nature Real? by Gary Snyder
Spring Recess
19. 4/5/10
Lab
20. 4/7/10
Lab
21. 4/12/10
Discussion of Snyder reading
Slide Lecture: The Equivalent - Landscape as Metaphor
Slide Lecture:The Altered Imaginary Landscape
Video: Mistaken Memories of Mediaeval Manhattan by Brian Eno
Video: Hatsu Yume (First Dream) by Bill Viola
Reading: The Visionary Landscape of Perception by Bill Viola
22. 4/14/10
Critique of Assignment #4
23. 4/19/10
Discussion of Viola reading
Slide Lecture: Quiet Landscapes of Light and Emptiness
Reading: Grounding One's Work by Frank Gohlke and Hilton Braithwaite
Learning To See by Barry Lopez
Lab
24. 4/21/10
DVD: Andy Goldsworthy, Rivers and Tides
Lab
25. 4/26/10
Critique of Assignment #5
26. 4/28/10
Lab
27. 5/3/10
Lab
28. 5/5/10
Lab
29. 5/10/10
Discuss Gohlke and Lopez readings
Mini-Portfolio Presentations / Critique
30. 5/12/10
Mini-Portfolio Presentations / Critique
31. Finals Week (no class Monday)
Extra Credit (optional)
Exhibition Review
View an exhibition space currently housing a show with landscape photographs. Write a one to two page review. This piece of writing should demonstrate that not only have you observed the exhibition, but also considered the works personal, cultural, and social import. Engage in the following four activities: describing, interpreting, evaluating, and theorizing, with the goal of increasing appreciation and understanding of the works in question.
Extended Viewing
Go to a museum or gallery and sit in front of a landscape photograph or painting for at least twenty minutes. Sit quietly and engage the artwork so as to let it work on you. Take notes and vividly describe the image. In other words, enter into the work without projection, followed by a thorough analysis.
Visit the Center for Land Use Interpretation
The CLUI main office is located at:
9331 Venice Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 839-5722
http://www.clui.org/
Learning Outcome
Appendix A
Participation (10% of grade)
Attendance : The participation grade will be reduced a grade for every unexcused absence.
A = 0 unexcused absences
A- = 1
B+ = 2
B = 3
B- = 4
C+ = 5
C = 6
Unexcused absences in excess of 6 will cause the student to be dropped from the course.
Critique
Participation is required.
Courtesy and lab etiquette shall also be considered as part of the participation grade.
Appendix B
Workbook (10% of grade)
Each student is required to keep an ongoing written journal responding to the assigned readings. The main emphasis should be on paraphrasing the gist of each essay, as well as addressing any questions or disagreements one might take issue with. Insights sparked by the reading can find a place in the journal too. Furthermore, the student should re-evaluate key questions regarding the definition of nature and landscape by pointing out the different perspectives of each author. A qualitative response is more valuable than a large quantity of words. The journal should not be written at the end of the semester, but rather be evidence of a continuing investigation. Additionally, the workbook contains the following specific questions (an open book test) to be answered.
1. How has photographing the landscape altered your perception, relationship and understanding of it? In other words, what have you learned?
2. Define the term "sublime" in relation to landscape photography.
3. Define the term "manifest destiny" in relation to landscape photography.
4. In what sense can landscape photography be considered metaphor? That is to say, can a photograph be a cause for a leap of the imagination to something not included in the picture? Explain how a photograph can be equally about something as it is of something.
5. Who coined the exhibition title "The New Topographics"? Describe the content and impact of this exhibition on contemporary landscape photography.
6. Describe in detail the work of three landscape photographers you find inspiring, and write about why you are admire them.
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