Part II of a two-semester course that will survey major topics in the Histories of Photography. Emphasis will be given to the diverse cultural uses of photography from its invention to the present day. Such uses include: the illustrated press; amateur photography; studio photography; industrial; advertising, and fashion photography; political and social propaganda; educational and documentary photography; and photography as a medium of artistic expression. Much attention will be paid to how photographs construct histories, as well as being constructed by them.

Preference given to Sophomore Photography Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

How does visual art influence our relationship with the land and with each other? This seminar course explores various forms of landscape representation and its ties to creating and perpetuating ideas around ownership and identity. We will focus on the ways that mediums such as photography and film have been used to reinforce systems of oppression and uphold power dynamics that have led to our current climate emergency. Students will learn about the relationships between extraction, displacement, and visual material, and gain knowledge around past and contemporary artists whose work has influenced environmental movements. The course will also present crucial debates about the relationships between aesthetics and politics, and the role of the artist in an age of ecological collapse.

Comparative works will be drawn from a global context on climate action, indigenous rights, natural resource extraction, and more, but will focus primarily on American colonization and imperialism. In addition to weekly assignments and film screenings, students will develop and present their own final project using historical visual strategies to develop an open call for proposals for a future exhibition related to art and the climate crisis.

This course does not require prior knowledge or photographic experience. Students will develop practical visual analysis skills and conceptual acuity that will strengthen their authentic voice and respective practices as artists and environmental stewards.

Elective

This course explores the intersection of Photography, Dream and Play, emphasizing experimentation, chance, and intuition in photographic image-making and sequencing. As dreamers, we intend to create a space to think about the image as a form of self expression. We will explore various approaches to photographic narratives by embracing non-linear storytelling, poetic associations, and tactile interactions with images. Through hands-on exercises, collaborative workshops, and theoretical discussions, students will engage with photography as a dynamic, physical, and self-expressive medium. Students are invited to participate by creating and maintaining their own journals and further encouraged to dive into their photographic archives. By engaging with the materiality of photographs, we will consider how the act of holding, folding, layering, and arranging images fosters deeper connections to both the work and the viewer.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

This winter session class is devoted to the color blue.  Through the historical photo process cyanotype (aka the blueprint), students will create unique prints that can be used in artist books, clothing, sculpture, quilts, collages, or as stand-alone imagery. We will print on various surfaces such as fabric, objects, hand-made and store-bought paper.  Students will bring items, darkroom negatives, drawings, and digital images to convert into digital negatives in class.  Other mediums can be put on top of the cyanotype, so we will explore its multimedia capabilities. Finally, we will also change the blue by natural toning our cyanotypes.  Please bring a sense of curiosity, and experimentation.   

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00 - $200.00

Elective

The Image & Difference explores the ways in which photography is and has historically been central to the production of a wide array of forms of difference, and to the normalization of inequities within and between communities and nations. Students will develop means of better understanding how both images and ideas act on us in the perpetuation of forms of differentiation in our contemporary experience of social, political, sexual, racial and economic difference. Discussions will also center on reckoning with how images and ideas might simultaneously offer means of resistance through examination of creative strategies devised by communities or artists to evade, subvert or refuse these exercises of power. The class demands a willingness on the part of all its members to confront unpleasant, ethically reprehensible acts, events, objects and images and to speak to and about them openly, and with care.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $25.00

Majors are pre-registered by the department. This course is a requirement for Sophomore Photography students.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

Over the past decade, photography books have seen a resurgence within the art world, this time transcending their original use as survey or catalog to become ideal spaces and platforms to experience and disseminate work. Today image-based printed matter functions in a multitude of ways, all of which at their core are driven by the mechanics of sequence and editing. Through class discussions, using RISD's Fleet Library and Special Collections, and individual research - students will form a personal vision of what images mean in the book form. Our focus will be equally on content, concept, production & technique. The semester will culminate in each student having devised, sequenced, edited and produced a fully resolved and realized photography book.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $125.00

Elective

This is a basic course in the techniques of photographic seeing. Students will be given exercises to develop their ideas concerning the fundamental visual problems of photography. Students will also learn technical aspects of exposure, developing and printing in the darkroom as they explore and respond to the visual qualities of the medium. Students must provide their own 35mm camera with manual controls.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00 - $200.00

Elective

This is a basic course in the techniques of photographic seeing. Students will be given exercises to develop their ideas concerning the fundamental visual problems of photography. Students will also learn technical aspects of exposure, developing and printing in the darkroom as they explore and respond to the visual qualities of the medium. Students must provide their own 35mm camera with manual controls.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00 - $200.00

Elective

This is a basic course in the techniques of photographic seeing. Students will be given exercises to develop their ideas concerning the fundamental visual problems of photography. Students will also learn technical aspects of exposure, developing and printing in the darkroom as they explore and respond to the visual qualities of the medium. Students must provide their own 35mm camera with manual controls.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00 - $200.00

Elective

This is a basic course in the techniques of photographic seeing. Students will be given exercises to develop their ideas concerning the fundamental visual problems of photography. Students will also learn technical aspects of exposure, developing and printing in the darkroom as they explore and respond to the visual qualities of the medium. Students must provide their own 35mm camera with manual controls.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00 - $200.00

Elective

This is a basic course in the techniques of photographic seeing. Students will be given exercises to develop their ideas concerning the fundamental visual problems of photography. Students will also learn technical aspects of exposure, developing and printing in the darkroom as they explore and respond to the visual qualities of the medium. Students must provide their own 35mm camera with manual controls.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00 - $200.00

Elective

The Sophomore Studio is focused on the of each student's expressive vision so that she/he can create photographs with compelling content. Through group critiques and individual meetings with the instructor, students will refine their skills as photographers and learn how to verbally articulate issues in their own work as well as the work of others. The greater part of the class will geared towards creating an open an dynamic environment where students engage in the give and take of constructive feedback on their progress. The critique schedule will be enriched by readings, multimedia lectures and class field trips throughout the semester. Attendance at all department visiting artist lectures is required.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

A continuation of PHOTO-5302, providing an open and dynamic environment where sophomore can create photographs and engage in constructive feedback on their progress.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Photography Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

The Junior Studio continues the process begun in the Sophomore Studio but moves it to a more ambitious and sustained level of production and critical feedback. Students will be expected to work more autonomously and will explore their ideas with more focus and depth, with the goal of working toward the successful production of several bodies of work over the course of the year. Group and individual critiques will continue to form the basis of the course curriculum, supplemented by visiting critics, field trips and class exercises. Attendance at all departmental visiting artist lectures is required.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00 - $200.00

Enrollment is limited to Junior Photography Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

A continuation of Photo 5305 allowing junior level majors to investigate their image making concerns in depth. Class time will be used to critique work in progress.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00 - $200.00

Enrollment is limited to Junior Photography Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

The Senior Studio brings together the advanced skills and ideas about image-making that each student in the major has developed over the previous two years. Students are expected to work independently on their individual projects with the expectation of a culminating body of work to be presented in a public exhibition during the spring semester (Degree Project). As in Junior Studio, group and individual critiques with faculty and visiting artists will continue to form the basis of the course curriculum. Attendance at all departmental visiting artist lectures is required.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00 - $250.00

Enrollment is limited to Senior Photography Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

This course provides majors with a fundamental understanding of the differences between film-based photography and digital imaging and introduces students to the underlying principles, languages and tools of electronic media. Students will learn key concepts in digital imaging such as modes of data capture, file management, processing workflow, color management, resolution, 'non-destructive' image processing, film scanning and inkjet printing. This course will show students how to strategically tailor software tools to their own specific imagery and workflow needs. Students will need their own digital or film cameras for this course.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Sophomore Photography Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

This course is designed to give junior majors a thorough and deep understanding of the intermediate-level workflow for film capture and scanning and digital camera RAW file capture. Both workflows allow students to produce the highest quality inkjet prints on large-format printers. This course will touch on many topics, including advanced tonal and color correction techniques, image sharpening, digital camera exposure and Raw file processing, inkjet and Lightjet printing and automated batch file processing. While this course is primarily technical, students are expected to pursue their ongoing personal work to fulfill assignments, culminating in a final portfolio of 10 finished digital prints that demonstrate mastery of the techniques learned in the course. Students entering the course should be proficient in the use of the Macintosh platform and basic Photoshop operations and have a good understanding of processing and printing in black and white photography. Transfer majors must demonstrate these proficiencies to the satisfaction of the department before being permitted to enroll in this course.

Prerequisite: PHOTO-5308 for undergraduates.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

This course will wrestle with the mercurial and ever-evolving subject of Time-Based art. What is Time-Based art? Is it simply art with durational elements that unfold over the course of the work? Is it art that depends on time to define itself? Is it art that can only exist within the confines of regulated space? Is it art that stands firmly in the aftermath of what preceded it? Is it art that keeps time, wastes time, witnesses time, changes time, rearranges time, or records time? In this course, we will explore and welcome work being made under the broad umbrella of Time-Based work, such as: documentary photography, video art, experimental film, performance art, recorded happenings, social practice, and sculpture made with temporal dimensions. The course will operate as a studio course, with students being asked to present work for critique regularly, as well as weekly discussions of historical and contemporary investigations and demonstrations of Time-Based art.

Elective

This studio course is designed to help students slow down and become more contemplative with their photographic practice. This darkroom based course will give students ultimate compositional control as they learn to use the large format camera. Topics covered will include using the view camera's tilt, swing, shift and rise movements to control focus, perspective and image shape. Student will also learn film exposure techniques and advanced black and white printing controls. Later in the course students will be introduced to large format digital scanning and printing workflows.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $500.00

Elective