Photobooks
Course Description
Summary
This course explores how photographers translate artistic concepts into the materiality of bookmaking, giving students insight into the basic steps of creating a photobook. The course will experiment with different book designs, paper qualities, digital printing, binding techniques, sequencing exercises, intervened photography, photo-collage, and layering. Students will be encouraged to think of photography as an object and to consider the audience’s experience with the storytelling created by the materiality of photography in combination with book-making. Students will complete in-class and weekly assignments on different book formats, group critiques, and a final self-directed project to produce a photobook. Class time will also engage group discussions based on reading assignments from photography theory, photobook industry, and the work of different artists. This course is better suited for students who already have a photographic body of work (or substantial archive) that can be used for designing and making photobooks.
InDesign, Photoshop, and Lightroom will be available on all 12 workstations in the Photo Digital Lab. Students will be required to have a Mac-compatible external hard drive or flash drive.
Learning Outcomes
- Gain basic skills in photobook design using manual methods, Photoshop, and InDesign.
- Develop skills in editing and sequencing images, and learn to identify how the key elements of storytelling are expressed through materiality of the chosen medium.
- Engage with photobooks’ histories and become familiar with different segments of the photobook industry.
- Create new work through in-class and weekly practical assignments and through a self-directed final project.
- Engage with peers respectfully to make observations and give and receive feedback on work in progress.
Prerequisites
Successful completion of Photography courses at Bennington, or previous experience with photography.
Please contact the faculty member: luizafolegatti@bennington.edu