Winter Open Studios: Photography

Home  •  Jamie Hellu: Introduction to Photography  •  Intermediate Photography  •  Christine Seror: Introduction to Photography  •  Intermediate Photography

Introduction to Photography 
Instructor: Jamil Hellu

An introductory course in photography that explores lens-based practices and the imperative of visual literacy in today’s world. The act of holding a camera to photograph our experiences is deeply meaningful, especially when expressing relationships to oneself, the past, and a sense of place corresponding to community, home, and the virtual world.

Intermediate Photography: Portraiture
Instructor: Jamil Hellu

Explores contemporary practices of portrait photography, examining its history and discourse on representations of race, gender, class, and sexuality. At a time when pictures are being produced and disseminated in unprecedented proliferation, we look into the pursuit of constructing meaning beyond pose and persona.

Introduction to Photography 
Instructor: Christine Seror

Explores lens-based practices and the imperative of visual literacy in today’s world. The history of photography starts now, in a context of image-making that proceeds all around us with unprecedented immediacy and proliferation. We cover fundamental principles of camera operation, composition and image editing. Through digital instruction, students learn to use DSLR or Mirrorless cameras and to operate manual settings (focus, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, color temp/white balance). They learn basic file management as well as the use of Adobe Lightroom software. Students acquire an essential knowledge of contemporary art photography, including standards of quality and image sequencing. They get a basic sense of aesthetics and of the critical discourse that exists around the cultural significance of images.

Intermediate Photography 
Instructor: Christine Seror

This course begins with the idea that all photographs are constructed. Students explore conceptual photographic practices through the frame of images as constructs, examining the various choices and expanded practices involved in the process of creating a photograph. Students are introduced to contemporary topics, historical positions, and examinations of various studio practices. Students examine different means of constructing representations of reality, building images and building spaces, within systems of making. This is an intermediate course in photography, with an ongoing emphasis on operating manual camera settings (focus, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, color temp/ white balance). Students continue to work with Lightroom as a file management system, are introduced to Photoshop, and focus on the importance of photo editing/selection and sequencing.