A Photo Teacher |

© Paul Turounet, Willow Lake, 1967 / 1972 / 2009

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“Now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, taking snapshots is among the plethora of leisure pursuits which underpin that specific form of family life.  However, photography occupies a peculiar place among those activities, as pictures are themselves carriers of meanings and interpretations.  They record and reflect on daily activities, delicately holding within the innocent-seeming image much that is intimate.

Personal photographs are embedded in the lives of those who own or make use of them.  Personal pictures are made specifically to portray the individual or the group to which they belong as they would wish to be seen and as they have chosen to show themselves to one another.  The photographs that we keep for ourselves are treasured less for their quality than for their context, and for the part they play in confirming and challenging the identity and history of their users.”

from ‘Sweet is is to scan…’: personal photographs and popular photography by Patricia Holland from Photography: A Critical Introduction edited by Liz Wells

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Assignment

Explore your own archive of personal | family photographs and/or shoot images that can be used to “reconstruct a personal | family moment, experience or memory.” Use a minimum of 3 separate images that can be used in constructing a new “family photograph.”  Keep in mind your scanning strategies should reflect higher resolutions, 300 ppi or higher, to insure consistency with the final image.  Once you’ve selected the images and have done a preliminary sketch of how you’ll want to construct the image, use the Selection Tools and other editing strategies to create the composite, including any Lighting Effects, Shadows and/or Selective Mask Editing.  Photographers work that is relevant to the assignment to consider:

Pedro Meyer

Martina Lopez

Osamu James Nakagawa

Maggie Taylor

Kelli Connell

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Requirements

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

Two grayscale, color or combination of grayscale and color critique prints in which three (3) or more images are seamlessly composited to reveal your interpretation of a “reconstructed personal | family moment, experience or memory”

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