Prepare a five minute presentation (six minutes max) for your classmates on one type of photography that interests you.
Provide 2 or 3 images of that type and tell us the following about them:
- What type of photograph are these? That is, if you divide photography (past and present) into major categories, which category do they belong to?
- How were these images made, in terms of technical equipment?
- How were they made in terms of social setting (permission, expertise, access, etc.)?
- When were these images made?
- Where were they made?
- Who made them?
- Why were they made? i.e. what motivated their creation?
- What is the intended audience? Are there other unintended or secondary audiences?
- What psychological, social, political, or other effects—intended or unintended—might the images have on those who view them?
- Are the images intended to be a faithful representation of the external world? Or are they intended to represent or express other realities? If so, what? Are they intended to be deceitful or tricky? If so, how?
- How would you describe the aesthetic quality of the images? E.g. beautiful, sublime, picturesque, surreal, etc., etc.
Feel free to add other comments on these images in response to questions about them that you generate (and answer) yourself.
On the day of the presentation, hand in a written summary of your comments along with a copy of each image. The summary should be 3–4 pages long (longer is Ok). Write it out in paragraph form, so it reads like an essay, not like a Q & A format.
The printed copies of the images do not have to be high quality. For your presentation, however, you should try to provide high quality images, whether printed or projected.
This is also available as a PDF.
