Photography:
Forms of photographic image in contemporary art
The course is offered by the Printmaking Division.
Semesters of studies: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Number of students: 139
Manolis Baboussis, Professor
Alexandros Voutsas, S< Staff
Giota Khachaturian, STL Staff
e-mail: ergastphoto@gmail.com
The course explores the creation of artworks with the use of photographic media, whether independently or in combination with other art media. Its goal is to train the students' gaze with respect to the various aspects of the photographic image. Apart from a dialectic dialogue developed during the course, on the aesthetic approaches to and the technical particularities of the projects students are required to execute, the latter are taught -by means of seminars- the history of the photographic artworks, focusing on their aesthetic and technical aspects. Photographic artworks, whether executed independently or in combination with other art media, are perceived as both ways and means of artistic expression, and are examined in relation to the overall progress of contemporary art.
Photographic artworks are an integral part of contemporary art production and the history of art, while photography, in its various forms, is taught as a major discipline in most European and US Fine Art Schools for decades. Photography studies were first established at the A.S.F.A. during the academic year 1999-2000; The Course is fully equipped with darkroom, studio, and computer facilities.
Photography has expanded and developed our ways of perceiving, analysing and understanding the ever-changing reality around us. The fact that photography produces images makes it at the same time a spiritual means of expression. The photograph of an object, an action or an event is not that object, that action or that event. What changes when something is detached from its original time & space continuum and is recreated in the photographic space? Is this art medium's nature constant, or does it change in time?
The course aims to enable each student to develop his or her own personal creative approach to the means and forms of photographic image, in an interactive relation with painting, sculpture, video art, installations and performances. The course also aspires to attract and further cultivate the students' interest in the photographic artworks of every form and approach, in a constant dialogue with the aesthetic ideas shaping Art in the 21st century, so that not only can students understand the wide range of possibilities offered by the media in question, but also critically develop their own work.
Each of the course's three teaching units, i.e. the creative, the theoretical and the technical, seek to help students, in the span of two to six semesters, grasp in visual terms the particularity of forms and means of digital and analog image in art. They seek to identify and arouse all things creative and consciously promote them without offering ready-made solutions. It is of great importance that the teaching of art should acknowledge certain essential values the duration of which lasts for more than just one season, while at the same time different approaches are encouraged.
1st & 2nd semester
1. Photography art projects I/II
The dialogue developed between the professor and the students, in the presence of all course students, aims at analysing the aesthetic approaches to and the technical particularities of each project students are required to execute and of the free-subject project of the students' choice. Such dialogue promotes students' critical thinking on visual issues arising from the viewing of photographic images. This process forms the basis of the course.
Portfolio submission and projects' exhibition I/II
A synthesis of the students' work, in various formats, is presented at the various exhibitions curated by the Studio. The idea is to introduce students to the experience of the art photography exhibition: an educational experience, where it is important for students to understand the different forms of photographic image, from the framed photograph as an object to photo projections and installations, the photographic work's exhibition value, the morphological and conceptual dialogue between various means and works, etc.
2. Introduction to photography. Its journey through Art.
(Seminar consisting of 12 two-hour lectures by M. Baboussis.)
A theoretical seminar, complemented by slides' screening, examining photography's own history, as well as the relations between the photographic image and other art forms and media, such as painting, sculpture, video, and architecture.
3. Introduction to photographic techniques I/II.
- Equipment. Analog photography with 35mm cameras. Digital photography.
- The darkroom. Developing and printing black & white (b&w) photographs.
Practical exercises
Introduction to the art of photography, with exterior and studio shots. The Studio is fully equipped.
3rd & 4th semester
1. Photography art projects III/IV
- Issues of space, identity, environment. Forms of image video-projection. The sequence of images. Introduction to film-editing. Photographic installations in space.
- Portfolio submission. Exhibition of students' projects.
2. Monographs on specific artists (Seminar)
- Probing into the work of important artists.
3. Photographic techniques III/IV
- Introduction to the "digital darkroom".
- Special printing techniques for b&w and colour photographs.
- Introduction to the photography studio. Lighting techniques. Portraiture. Photographing artworks.
Practical exercise in the studio.
5th & 6th semester
1. Photography art projects V/VI
- Student projects combining other media, and in conjunction with the photography history and techniques taught during the corresponding semester. Contemporary approaches to painting, sculpture, cinema etc. by photographic means.
- Presentation of portfolios and defence of the students' projects. Exhibition of the projects.
2. Media forms and development. The photographic language. (Seminar)
- A critical approach of modern artists.
3. Techniques V/VI
- Analog and digital shooting using medium-format film and camera back (use of the A.S.F.A. Photography Studio's medium- and large-format equipment).
- Digital image processing.
- Design and presentation of a portfolio, in both printed and digital form, of analog photographic images.
- Practical exercise: Studio, interior and exterior shots.
- Submission of projects.
Equipment and technical infrastructure - Students' benefits
- The Studio's fixed equipment.
- Lending of photographic equipment to students.
- Photo gallery. Transferring projects to CDs.
- Scanning of projects.
Each semester, the Photography Studio admits for practice three (3) students of the Department of Photography and Audiovisual Arts of the Athens H.T.E.I.
SUGGESTED READING MATERIAL
Students are entitled to four sets of teaching notes by Assistant Professor M. Baboussis (2 sets of theoretical and 2 sets of technical notes); sets of video-recorded lessons are also available. Students are also entitled to a number of free books, including titles by Gregory J. Markopoulos, Hans Bellmer, Gilles Deleuze, Michael Freeman, Andrei Tarkovsky, John Hedgecoe, Jacques Derrida etc.
