Week 7 Wrap-Up

JOHN GOSSAGE, Monumentenbricke, 1981

Hello everybody!

This week, we went to MoMA and saw The Shape of Things (exhibition site here) and a retrospective of Nan Goldin's work (also found here).

We also discussed "reading" photographs (in other words, how to look at and analyze a photographic image).

We looked at two ways to analyze a photograph--
Firstly, what the image denotes: what information is contained explicitly in the photograph ("This photograph is of a middle-aged woman in a black dress, standing on the stairs. Her arms are held out and there is a diamond ring on her right ring finger")
Secondly, what the image connotes: what we interpret from the photograph ("this image is about elegance and sophistication").

I've included two articles this will help you understand this better here and here.

In class, we filled out a worksheet analyzing three different photographs from the exhibition. If you weren't in class, the worksheet can be downloaded from the Dropbox. Choose any image from the exhibition link tav the top of this post.

Which leads us to this week's homework:

1. Choosing any one artwork that you analyzed in class:
create a photographic response (an image using a similar composition or technique, or that is in response to or interpretation of) to an image from the exhibition.

If you weren't in class, you can pick any photograph from the MoMA's online archive, found here.

Be sure to post the image before next week's class--we will be looking at them at the start.

2. Next week will be our 2nd critique! Come with 10 new images from your series to share, separated into a folder.

3. We will also have a very brief open lab session if you need an extra few minutes to organize your images.

That's it! Please be in touch with any questions or concerns, and have a great week!