A Photo Teacher |

Paul Turounet — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:05:59 +0000

Postcard

Happening this Summer

Currently, I’m teaching Introduction to Photography and Color Photography in the University of San Diego Guadalajara Summer Program in Mexico from June 1 – July 18, 2010. I’m available via email through July 18.

Happening in the Grossmont College Photography Program

The Fall 2010 and a preliminary Spring 2011 Schedule of Photography Classes is available to look at in considering what classes to take during the upcoming academic year (Fall 2010 / Spring 2011) at Grossmont College.

Click on Grossmont Photography Course Schedule – Fall 2010 and Spring 2011

Photography Exhibitions and Events in Southern California

Preview of some interesting photography exhibitions currently showing in San Diego and Southern California:

San Diego

Museum of Photographic Arts

Taking Aim : Unforgettable Rock ‘n’ Roll Photographs Selected by Graham Nash | June 12 – September 26, 2010

Seeing Beauty and In Light: Images from the Permanent Collection | January 30, 2010 – January 23, 2011

Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla

RE:VIEW | a Group Exhibition | June 11 – July, 2010

Los Angeles

Getty Center

Engaged Observers: Documentary Photography since the Sixties | June 29 – November 14, 2010

Rose Gallery

Graciela Iturbide : asor | July 24 – September 18, 2010

Peter Fetterman Gallery

In The Presence Of Paul Caponigro | April 3 – June 10, 2010

Craig Krull Gallery

Connie Jenkins (left) | Michael Kenna (center) | Matthew Chase-Daniel (right) | July 17 – August 28, 2010

Regen Projects

Rachel Harrison: ASDFJKL | May 27- July 10, 2010

M + B

Henry Leutwyler : Neverland Lost | June 10 – August 14, 2010

Gagosian Gallery

Nancy Rubins : Skins, Structures, Landmasses | June 3 – July 9, 2010

Los Angeles County Museum of Art | LACMA

Catherine Opie : Figure and Landscape | July 25–October 17, 2010

Fahey / Klein Gallery

Legends of Jazz Photography (Herman Leonard, Frank Sinatra, Monte Carlo, 1958 – left) and Jim Marshall : Trust (right) | April 1 – July 2, 2010

The Annenberg Space for Photography

Pictures of the Year | June 26 – October 10, 2010

For other photography exhibitions throughout Southern California, click on the following link for current exhibitions:

Photograph | Exhibitions in Southern California

Grossmont College Photography Course Schedule – Fall 2010 | Spring 2011

Paul Turounet — Tue, 18 May 2010 23:43:35 +0000

The Fall 2010 and a preliminary Spring 2011 Course Schedules for photography courses at Grossmont College are listed below.

Registration for the Fall Semester will begin in the coming weeks.

To register, click on Grossmont Photo Course Schedule

For course descriptions, click on Grossmont College Photography Degree

Fall Semester 2010

PHOT 150 – Photography I

Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:00 am to 11:50 am – Jacqueline Ramirez

Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:30 pm to 3:20 pm – Suda House

Mondays and Wednesdays, 4:00 pm to 6:50 pm – Amanda Quintenz-Fiedler

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:00 pm to 6:50 pm – Patricio Chavez

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:00 pm to 9:50 pm – Jacqueline Ramirez

PHOT 151 – Photography II

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 pm to 3:20 pm – Suda House

PHOT 152 – Photography III (Large-Format Photography) and PHOT 153 – Advanced Large-Format Photography

Mondays and Wednesdays, 7:00 pm to 9:50 pm – Craig Carlson

PHOT 154 – History of Photography

Tuesdays, 7:00 pm to 9:50 pm – Paul Turounet

Wednesdays, 12:30 pm to 3:20 pm – Paul Turounet

PHOT 156 – Digital Photography I

Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:00 am to 11:50 am – Suda House

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:00 pm to 9:50 pm – Alison Chadwick

PHOT 158 – Studio Lighting I and PHOT 258 – Studio Lighting II

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:00 am to 11:50 am – Suda House

PHOT 159 A/B/C/D – Photographic Lab Practice (Darkroom)

Fridays, 9:00 am to 11:50 am and 12:00 pm to 2:50 pm – Craig Carlson and Amanda Quintenz-Fiedler (rotation)

Fridays, 3:00 pm to 5:50 pm and 6:00 pm to 8:50 pm – Judith Preston and Michele Iversen (rotation)

Saturdays, 12:00 pm to 2:50 pm and 3:00 pm to 5:50 pm – Judith Preston and Michele Iversen (rotation)

PHOT 165 – Color Photography I and PHOT 265 – Color Photography II

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 pm to 3:20 pm – Paul Turounet

PHOT 167 – Lens Culture in the Public Eye

Mondays and Wednesday, 7:00 pm to 9:50 pm – Paul Turounet

PHOT 259 A/B/C/D – Advanced Photographic Lab Practice (Digital)

Fridays, 9:00 am to 11:50 am and 12:00 pm to 2:50 pm – Aaron Serafino

Fridays, 6:00 pm to 8:50 pm – Andrew Cross

Saturdays, 12:00 pm to 2:50 pm and 3:00 pm to 5:50 pm – Ryder Smith

PHOT 267 – Documentary Photography

Mondays and Wednesdays, 7:00 pm to 9:50 pm – Paul Turounet

____________________________________________

Preliminary Spring Semester 2011

PHOT 150 – Photography I

Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:00 am to 11:50 am – Judith Preston

Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:30 pm to 3:20 pm – Suda House

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:00 am to 11:50 am – Suda House

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:00 pm to 6:50 pm – Patricio Chavez

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:00 pm to 9:50 pm – Amanda Quintenz-Fiedler

PHOT 151 – Photography II

Mondays and Wednesdays, 7:00 pm to 9:50 pm – Craig Carlson

PHOT 152 – Photography III (Large-Format Photography) and PHOT 153 – Advanced Large-Format Photography

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 pm to 3:20 pm – Suda House

PHOT 154 – History of Photography

Tuesdays, 7:00 pm to 9:50 pm – Paul Turounet

Wednesdays, 12:30 pm to 3:20 pm – Paul Turounet

PHOT 156 – Digital Photography I

Mondays and Wednesdays, 4:00 pm to 6:50 pm – Alison Chadwick

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 pm to 3:20 pm – Paul Turounet

PHOT 159 A/B/C/D – Photographic Lab Practice (Darkroom)

Fridays, 9:00 am to 11:50 am and 12:00 pm to 2:50 pm – Craig Carlson and Amanda Quintenz-Fiedler (rotation)

Fridays, 3:00 pm to 5:50 pm and 6:00 pm to 8:50 pm – Michele Iversen and Jacqueline Ramirez (rotation)

Saturdays, 12:00 pm to 2:50 pm and 3:00 pm to 5:50 pm – Michele Iversen and Jacqueline Ramirez (rotation)

PHOT 165 – Color Photography I and PHOT 265 – Color Photography II

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:00 pm to 9:50 pm – Jacqueline Ramirez

PHOT 252 – Photography IV

Mondays and Wednesday, 7:00 pm to 9:50 pm – Paul Turounet

PHOT 256 – Digital Photography II

Mondays and Wednesday, 7:00 pm to 9:50 pm – Suda House

PHOT 259 A/B/C/D – Advanced Photographic Lab Practice (Digital)

Fridays, 9:00 am to 11:50 am and 12:00 pm to 2:50 pm – Aaron Serafino

Fridays, 6:00 pm to 8:50 pm – Andrew Cross

Saturdays, 12:00 pm to 2:50 pm and 3:00 pm to 5:50 pm – Ryder Smith

Blanco y Negro | Making Black and White Photographs

Paul Turounet — Mon, 17 May 2010 20:48:18 +0000

Photographs are informed by considered and intentional choices. These choices are suggested by a need or desire to secure a moment, an experience, a revelation, a curiosity, or a discovery on film or a silicon chip and contain it as an object in a photographic print.

The formal considerations of image capture and optimization/processing are translated from film or the silicon chip to the photographic print where the importance of tone and description will further articulate the visual sensation and intellectual attention. The range of descriptive possibilities as revealed by the photographic print will further communicate the possibilities of visual engagement and pleasure (beauty) and the interpretive meanings suggested.

Once the image has been optimized/processed, there is the wonder and realization of an image being translated through a chemical/technological process into that of a tactile object – a photographic print.

Assignment

Shoot one roll of black & white negative film (C-41 process) – Kodak BW400 CN ( 24-exposure ). Process film at a Laboratorios Julio and have the negatives digitized on a CD (digitalización de negativos con software para grabar fotos en CD) or have photographic prints made (para imprimir impresiones fotográficas). For students who do not have a film camera available, the USD-Guadalajara Summer Program will check out a camera to those students to use to complete the assignment.

and

Make a finished photographic print in the darkroom with provided course negative using the variable-contrast filters for optimum tonal range (density and contrast). Use the “Printing Record” to record each step in the printing process, including time, aperture and filter notations. Use the boxes on the “Printing Record” to sketch out the final secondary areas (burning and dodging).

Requirements

For evaluation (see Calendar for Due Date), please complete the following:

CD or Photographic Prints (4″ x 6″) from one roll of black & white negative film (C-41 process) – Kodak BW400 CN
One analog black and white print with a full-range of tonal values (correct density and contrast). It is necessary to size the image 6″ x 9″ on 8″ x 10″ variable-contrast photographic paper and mount the photograph for presentation.

Turn-in CD or Photographic Prints (4″ x 6″), one photographic print from the darkroom mounted for presentation and the Printing Record in a manila envelope for evaluation and feedback.

Vistas Fijas | Scenic Views – a Photographic Portfolio of Mexico

Paul Turounet — Sun, 16 May 2010 21:57:06 +0000

los figones celeste y las cantinas solferino, el olor del aserrín sobre el piso de ladrillo, el mostrador espejeante, equívoco altar en donde genios de insidiosos poderes duermen encerrados en botellas multicolores;

y el cruce de la calle, sin razón, porque si, como un golpe de mar o el ondear súbito de un campo de maíz, como un sol que rompe entre nubarrones : la alegría, el surtidor de la dicha instantánea – ah, estar vivo, desgranar la granada de esta hora y comerla grano a grano!;

las parejas en las bancas de los parques o de pie en los repliegues de los quicios, los cuatro brazos anudados, árboles incandescentes sobre los que reposa la noche,

the azure of the lunch-stops and the solferino of the cantinas, the smell of sawdust on the brick floor, the mirrored bar, ambiguous altar where genies with insidious powers sleep captive in the multicolored bottles;

and crossing the street for no particular reason, because it is, like a surge of sea or the sudden ripple in a field of corn, like a sun breaking through a thick layer of cloud : happiness, fountain of instantaneous joy – to be alive, to crack open the pomegranate of the hour and eat it seed by seed!;

the couples on the benches in the parks or standing in the nooks of doorways, the four knotted arms, glowing trees on which the night rest,

Once the artist has identified their subject matter in combination with their own sense of vision, aesthetic approach and technical execution, it becomes necessary to develop and produce work that challenges this subject matter visually, intellectually and emotionally. How does the artist challenge these considerations and progress so that the work doesn’t become static and repetitive? When does the artist know or realize that he/she has exhausted all conceptual possibilities in relationship to their sense of photographic vision?

Thinking about your conceptual concerns and what to photograph, I would propose you gravitate towards what your interests and curiosities are. How would you approach those concerns photographically to reveal what they would look like as a series of photographs? In addition to their visual engagement, what do you want the photographs to reveal, suggest or evoke, intellectually and/or emotionally, in relationship to these ideas and perceptions? Consider how your use of the camera, photographic aesthetics and materials as well as your technical execution will be utilized in making photographs that begin to suggest and inform these curiosities and ideas.

Assignment

Shoot photographic images that reflect focused attention on your curiosities and interests through your photographic vision and sense of technical execution and craftsmanship in preparation of developing a conceptually cohesive portfolio of 10 (ten) photographs of Mexico.

Give particular attention to the following:

ART 160v | Introduction to Photography – all photographs are to be in black & white | grayscale
ART 353v | Color Photography – all photographs are to be in color

Use of the photographic frame, vantage point, moments of exposure and the role and use of light to reveal your interpretation of the thing itself and details.
Various visual strategies and points of view, including the compositional possibilities with a single frame, multiple-image sequences, the juxtaposition of images (diptychs and triptychs) and multiple-image series (typology – conceptually and/or visually).
Correct controls of the camera, image exposure and processing, use of materials (color, black & white and/or alternative materials), and photographic printing.
Edit and sequencing of work in the portfolio. Avoid duplication of similar types of imagery unless it is a function of your conceptual concern.
Consistent image sizing, material sizing and use of materials.
Refined sense of technical craftsmanship, including correct image density and contrast, color balance and print finishing (retouching).

Photographic print sizing is 6″ x 8″ with white border.

It is essential that your idea reflect a sense of considered thought, active visual and intellectual exploration and is articulated with a cohesive vision and voice. As suggested in the previous shooting assignments, I would encourage you to follow-up with me regarding your ideas and conceptual development by meeting with me with edited contact prints | prints in an effort to propose a greater sense of visual clarity and interest.

Requirements

For the final project, please present the following:

Ten (10) finished photographic prints that reflect focused attention on a conceptual concern/interest/curiosity through your photographic vision and sense of technical execution and craftsmanship. Photographic print sizing is 6″ x 8″ (minimum) with white border.

One-page artist statement (typed or submitted online) that discusses the work presented in the final portfolio, including why you were inspired to develop the subject matter, how you utilized your photographic vision and use of materials to reveal and articulate your conceptual concern(s) and intentions, as well as the interpretive possibilities you want the viewer to consider. If the artist statement is not completed at the time of the critique, there will be a 10% grade / point reduction from the overall points earned on the Final Project. For review materials, click on Writing About Your Photographs.

See course calender for due date. Final projects will be returned on the date of the Final Exam.

The Photographic Scene in Mexico

Paul Turounet — Sun, 16 May 2010 21:31:23 +0000

Identity
and The Photographic Portrait

From the medium’s early inception, photographers were immediately interested in capturing the likeness of people on film, the photographic portrait. Unlike the portrait paintings, the photographic portrait provided a seemingly exact likeness and description of a person. However, the portrait photograph presented far more than a descriptive reality of people. A common existential condition was revealed – an individual psychology and collective sociology as well as the tension between the private and public self. The portrait photograph questioned and provided clues to reflect on our sense of identity and our roles within a complex social fabric.

Such photographs demand the understanding attentiveness and development of a mutual trust between photographer and subject to allow the individuality of the subject to be considered. As a photographer working intimately with people, it becomes important to ask how true the photographic portrait appears to be in depicting a pertinent aspect of the person photographed and the level of accuracy the portrait has in describing the supposed true character of the subject.

Meanings of Space and Place
in the Photographic Landscape

As intimate as our own backyards, the sheer awe of the natural landscape or the congestion of freeways, strip malls and suburban development, photographers have been interested in exploring the landscape to gain a greater understanding and sense of meaning within our ideas of space and place. Not since the middle of the nineteenth century has the question of what we are doing within the land we occupy been so central to interpretation by photographers.

Early on, photographers including William Henry Jackson, Timothy O’Sullivan, and Carlton E. Watkins, responded to the wonderment and awe of the frontier with the expansion of America west. These early landscape photographers sought to capture vistas of spectacular beauty and untamed wilderness empty of civilization within the traditions of romanticism as suggested by landscape painting of the time. The photographs revealed the grand scale of atmospheric space and the particularities of places. The myth of the American landscape was further reinforced with photographs of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston as the West grew increasingly more populated. Yosemite, the Pacific Coast and the expanses of the desert were places that remained pristine, and were photographed with the romantic urge to preserve what was rapidly disappearing.

With the escalating development in the land, the vision of the landscape became less innocent and by the middle of the twentieth century photographers began to re-consider our relationship to the landscape. While still engaged in the desire to record our sense of place, these contemporary photographers including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz and Lee Friedlander, focused on the culture of nature and how we’ve come to occupy a space and place. Their photographs questioned the myth of the natural landscape, revealing how the landscape has been transformed by our presence and the cultural, political, spiritual and scientific meanings of this adaptation on the land. For the landscape photographer, the present challenge lies in making photographs that address our ideas of the landscape in ways that make sense out of contemporary experience. Does such a place of natural beauty still exist? Or can beauty and revelation be discovered in our transformation of space?

The Photograph as Document

The city streets, the chaos of modern life and photography are intimately linked. With the advent of the small hand-held camera, faster film and lenses, photographers became hunters of the moving and evolving life unfolding in front of them with each step on the sidewalk. Among its practioners, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, William Klein and Garry Winogrand established themselves as the visionaries within the genre of street photography – the theatre of everyday life. Street photographers have continued to prowl the streets, stepping onto the stage of modernity all the while prowling for visual pleasure and meaning within that split-second fragment of time.

As suggested by John Szarkowski in The Photographer’s Eye, “immobilizing these thin slices of time has been a source of continuing fascination for the photographer. And while pursuing this experiment he discovered something else: he discovered that there was pleasure and a beauty in this fragmenting of time that had little to do with what was happening. It had to do rather with seeing the momentary patterning of lines and shapes that had been previously concealed within the flux of movement. Cartier-Bresson defined his commitment to this new beauty as the decisive moment, but the phrase has been misunderstood; the thing that happens at the decisive moment is not a dramatic climax but a visual one. The result is not a story but a picture.”

Like the visual poetry Cartier-Bresson achieved with his intuitive sense of time, photographers such as William Klein and Garry Winogrand roamed the streets like stray dogs, wandering relentlessly and aggressively, making life reveal itself for their camera. This frenzied point of view confronted life, allowing for photographs that exposed the rawness and beauty of the everyday and commonplace. They plunged themselves into sea of the crowd with an assertive camera vantage points. When asked why he was so interested in street photography, Winogrand remarked, “I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed.”

While such photographers as Philip-Lorca diCorcia are now utilizing techniques from the studio, including staging and controlled lighting, to make photographs on the street, other photographers such Josef Koudelka, Danny Lyon, and Nan Goldin have utilized small camera aesthetics to reveal personal narrative concerns. Photographers, such as Sebastião Salgado, Mary Ellen Mark and Eugene Richards, are utilizing the camera to explore the social condition with the photograph functioning as a document to height awareness and consciousness.

Assignment

Shoot photographic images that reflect your interpretation of the photographic scene, including the following:

Identity and the Photographic Portrait
Meanings of Space and Place in the Photographic Landscape
The Photograph as Document

Give particular attention to utilizing the camera and following visual strategies:

Light (top, front and side lighting, diffused lighting, and back lighting)
Compositional Organization (rule of thirds, symmetrical and asymmetrical balance, the placement and level of the horizon line, and the use of scale and perspective)
Photographic Description (various vantage point strategies to reveal a point of view (looking up and down & eye-level), a sense of depth with foreground-to-background relationships, and figure-field relationships (through separations of tone, shape or pattern)
Emphasis and Moments of Exposure (use of selective focus and the aperture to reveal emphasis of pictorial content and the use of the shutter in capturing the decisive moment of exposure)

Requirements

For the critique (see Calendar for Due Date) and evaluation, please complete the following:

minimum of 2 (two) critique prints reflecting your interpretation of the photographic portrait that suggests a sense of a persons’ identity within the context of their environment, reveals a particular detail of a persons’ identity or an interpretation of self-portraiture.

minimum of 2 (two) critique prints reflecting your interpretation of the photographic landscape, whether it be the natural, urban, suburban and/or the relationship between these contexts of place.

minimum of 2 (two) critique prints reflecting your interpretation of the photograph as document of the everyday experience.

Each critique print is required to be grayscale | black & white and can be sized from 6″ x 8″ or 8″ x 10″. Prints can be made at any photographic lab and/or photo kiosk. It is not necessary to mount the photographs for presentation. Turn-in all prints in a manila envelope for evaluation and feedback.

Click on the Adobe Acrobat PDF file to download:

The Photographic Scene Presentation.pdf