Photography Remade

Course Description

Summary

This 2-credit course invites students to remake existing images, and explores digital techniques for adding, removing, combining, rearranging, and distorting content. Students are welcome to shoot their own photographs, however this is not required, and it is not necessary to have a camera. Instead, the emphasis will be on how to work creatively with image selection, manipulation, and display. The primary technical goal of the course will be to develop students' skills in Photoshop, focusing on advanced, non-destructive techniques including a range of tools for selections and masking, multiple adjustment layers, and blending modes. Students will learn to make bold modifications, clean-edged collages, and seamless composites, while deepening their understanding of related historical and contemporary work. Readings, discussions, and slideshows will examine themes of redaction, negation, and erasure, as well as collecting, copying, collaging, and the complex relationship between photography and truth. We will also look at image manipulation in mobile apps and discuss how our relationship with photography is influenced by new technologies like augmented reality. Class time will include technical demonstrations and supervised practice in the digital photo lab, as well as group critiques and discussions. Students will be responsible for completing creative and technical assignments, readings, and a self-directed final project.