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Cerritos College
Photo 252 - Photography of the Landscape Syllabus
Fall , 2006
Teacher: Ed Heckerman
Room: FA 40
Office: FA 64B
class hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 4:00 - 7:00 PM
office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 3:30 - 4:00, and Tuesdays 10:00 - 11:00
office phone: (562) 860-2451 x2605
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: $ 15.00
Attendance
Three tardy arrivals are equivalent to an absence. Any student with more than six unexcused absences 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 a student does not work on lab days they will be marked absent even if they are physically present.
Grading Criteria:
The following factors will influence the final grade:
a. Participation, including class discussions, critiques, and attendance (10%)
b. Effort and enthusiasm
c. Mid-semester presentation of work in progress (10%)
d. Journal of Readings (10%)
e. Excellence of portfolio (60%)
f. Performance on final exam (10%)
g. Courtesy
h. Appropriate darkroom etiquette
For additional information on attendance and grading see the Cerritos College Fall 2006 Class Schedule, page 20.
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. Wash and dry your own fiber-based prints. The lab tech will wash and dry your RC proofs for you. 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
- Mounting board and tissue or archival storage bags with conservation board inserts.
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
Camera Repair:
Lenor's Camera Repair, 571 S. Fairfax Ave. Los Angeles, (323) 936-0894
Class Calendar
This calendar is subject to alteration, additions, and omissions at the teacher’s discretion. This also pertains to the sequence of the reading 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. A field trip to a gallery or museum housing a photo exhibition may be arranged. Most classes will begin with a short slide lecture, DVD, or video presentation. This is indicated on the calendar by "Featured Photographer / artist." We will also have discussions of class readings once a week. The rest of the class, approximately two hours, will be devoted to lab. Please come to class with something to do every session, be it film development, black and white printing, scanning, or color digital printing. Demos regarding advanced black and white printing, and advanced exposure techniques will be optional for students who took Intermediate Photography.
1. 8/14/06
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
Homework: Think about the meaning of the sublime and its relationship to landscape. Jot down a few notes in your class journal.
Reading: The Word Itself from Discovering the Vernacular Landscape by John
Brinckerhoff Jackson
2. 8/16/06
Discussion of the sublime and landscape
Slide Lecture: Caspar David Friedrich
DVD clips: Brigadoon, scene 1; The Fellowship of the Ring, scenes 18, 25-26, 34-35; Koyaanisquatsi, Life Out Of Balance, scenes 1-4, 6, 10-14
3. 8/21/06
Slide lecture: Whatever Happenned to the Frontier? The photography of Timothy O'Sullivan, Carleton Watkins, and William Henry Jackson; Mark Ruwedel and Robert Adams
CD-Rom - Mark Klett and The Third View Project
Individual consultations on Portfolio ideas and methods
4. 8/23/06
Slide lecture: Equivalents - Landscape as Metaphor
Distinguishing small, medium, and large format cameras
Special procedures for processing, washing, and drying fiber-base paper
Reading: The Visionary Landscape of Perception by Bill Viola from Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House
5.8/28/06
Discussion of reading (both Jackson and Viola)
Featured Photographer / artist: Simone Nieweg
Video: Hatsu-Yume (First Dream) by Bill Viola
Lab
6. 8/30/06
Featured Photographer / artist: Edward Weston (slides and video)
Lab
Reading: Fire in the Garden from Savage Dreams by Rebecca Solnit
School closed 9/4/06 for Labor Day
7. 9/6/06
How to use a 4 x 5 field camera
How to develop and print medium and large format film
Lab
8. 9/11/06
Lecture: Advanced Exposure Techniques
Lab
Reading: The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature by William Cronon from Uncommon Ground
9. 9/13/06
Discussion of reading (Solnit)
Featured Photographer / artist: Ansel Adams
Selinium Toning Demo
Lab
10. 9/18/06
Featured Photographer / artist: Robbert Flick
Video: Cadillac Desert: An American Nile
Lab
Reading: Landscape and Nature, Chapter 5 from The History of Photography, An Overview by Alma Davenport
11. 9/20/06
Discussion of reading (Cronon)
Featured Photographer / artist: John Divola
Video: Cadillac Desert: The Mercy of Nature
Lab
12. 9/25/06
Featured Photographer / artist: Robert Dawson and the Water and the West Project
Video: Cadillac Desert: The Last Oasis
Lab
Reading: Introduction to the New Topographics by William Jenkins
13. 9/27/06
Discussion of reading (Davenport)
Featured Photographer / artist: Brian Eno's Mistaken Memories of Mediaeval Manhattan
Lab
14. 10/2/06
Featured Photographer / artist: John Pfahl
Lab
Reading: Land into Landscape from Landscape and Western Art by Malcolm Andrews
15. 10/4/06
Discussion of reading (Jenkins)
Featured Photographer / artist: Joel Sternfield
Lab
16. 10/9/06
Featured Photographer / artist: Naoya Hatekeyama
Individual mid-semester in progress portfolio reviews
17. 10/11/06
Featured Photographer / artist: Toshio Shibata
Individual mid-semester in progress portfolio reviews
18. 10/16/06
Mid-semester in progress portfolio reviews / class critique
19. 10/18/06
Featured Photographer / artist: Patrick Hebert, Cerritos College Gallery
Lab
Reading: Learning To See from About This Life by Barry Lopez
20. 10/23/06
Discussion of reading (Andrews)
Featured Photographer / artist: P.H. Emerson
Lab
21. 10/25/06
Featured Photographer / artist: Jerry Burchfield - The Radiant Light Series
Lab
22. 10/30/06
Discussion of reading (Lopez)
Featured Photographer / artist: Linda Conner
Lab
23. 11/1/06
Featured Photographer / artist: Richard Misrach
Lab
24. 11/6/06
Featured Photographer / artist: Robert Adams
Lab
25. 11/8/06
Featured Photographer / artist: Andy Goldsworthy
Lab
26. 11/13/06
Featured Photographer / artist: Ed Heckerman
Lab
27. 11/15/06
Lab
Featured Photographer s/ artists: Frederick Sommer, Joe Deal, Andrew Borowiec
Reading: Tree Places from A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
Truth and Landscape from Beauty and Photography by Robert Adams
28.11/20/06
Featured Photographer / artist: Frank Gohlke
Lab
29. 11/22/06
Discussion of reading (Alexander and Adams)
Art Sinsabaugh and Bob Thall
Lab
Journal Due
Thanksgiving Break
30. 11/27/06
Lab
31. 11/29/06
Lab
32. 12/4/06
Portfolio Critique
33. 12/6/06
Portfolio Critique
34.Finals Week
Final Exam
Portfolio
Each student is required to assemble a portfolio of twelve or more fine art photographs that address landscape subject matter and issues. Possibilities include working a site (going repeatedly to the same location), concentrating on a consistent theme, directorial landscape tableauxs, landscape typologies, documentary interpretations of the landscape, etc. The student is free to work either intuitively or methodically. The subject matter can be either wilderness, urban. or the intersection of nature and culture. However, a selection of "greatest hits" is not acceptable. In other words, there will be many avenues to pursue but the work must show continuity both formally and referentially. The student is required to submit a written proposal outling their content and approach. This can be revised as the semester unfolds. In progress images will be reviewed by the instructor on a regular basis, and once mid-semester by the whole class. At the end of the semester each portfolio will be critiqued in depth.
The photographs for the portfolio can be produced with either wet or digital techniques. It is recommended that the body of work consist exclusively of either fiber-base silver gelatin black and white photographs or archival digital color ink-jet or direct to print light jet. Training in these technical options will be stressed at the beginning of the semester. It is not advised to work digitally unless the student has completed "Intro to Digital Photography" or has equivalent experience. Training on scanning and photoshop techiques will be conduced individually as needs arise.
Journal
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 quantity of words. In addition to pondering the readings, the student should endeavor to answer this question: How has photographing the landscape altered your perception, relationship and understanding of it? In other words, what have you learned? The journal should not be written at the end of the semester, but rather be evidence of a continuing investigation.
Final Exam
A slection of slides will be shown. The student will be required to identify the photographer of each image. Additionally, there will be a number of multiple choice questions that address key points regarding theories of the landscape.
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 through 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/
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