Course spotlight: ART 207 – Digital Photography II

Course description: ART 207 – Digital Photography II

Building on lessons from ART 206 (Digital Photography I), ART 207 takes a closer look at digital photography, introducing you to the basic concepts of the medium as a form of creative expression through readings, lectures and demonstrations. With an emphasis on students’ own creative practice, the class gives you a chance to showcase and build on your photography skills through ​​regular shooting assignments and critiques.

When you’re not in the field, you’ll learn about the technical, aesthetic and conceptual aspects of digital photography and explore how meaning is created in a digital photograph. ART 207 also takes a critical eye to the photography world as a whole, examining the ways the increased speed of creation and dissemination have led to the ubiquity of photography.

Along the way, you’ll hone core photography skills, such as digital editing, proper camera controls and optimizing your workflow. You’ll also study media theory in relation to digital imaging technology. Assignments cover topics including appropriation, social media, surveillance, and vernacular and ritual photography, and there is a strong emphasis on critique.

How you’ll learn

Professors Granville Carroll and Renee Dennison will guide you to becoming a better digital photographer.

“This class gives students the creative freedom to explore the photographic medium in a lot of different ways,” Carroll says.

Within each module of the course, you’ll explore a photographic theme and study the artists who have made an impact on that theme. For example, when covering photograph manipulation (Carroll’s favorite part of the course), you’ll draw inspiration from such artists as Jerry Yulsman, Kelli Connell and Nikki S. Lee. Then you’ll create your own body of work, building a portfolio of 10 to 20 images for each module.

Carroll also loves to watch students learn about appropriation. “They’re always surprised by how different artists take images that they did not make themselves but then re-create something from them.”

What makes the Digital Photography II course special

The instructors have made collaboration a core element of the class. Students provide feedback on each other’s work to bolster the creative process and reach new artistic horizons.

Although the class is taught online, Carroll says there is still a focus on peer-to-peer interaction. In fact, he sees the virtual setting as an advantage.

“All the students are dispersed across the country and abroad. And that allows for a beautiful exchange of ideas, perspectives and belief systems that I don’t think students would get otherwise.”

“Students get such a range of photographic genres to explore. It’s exciting for them to expand their knowledge and think of the medium in ways that they may not have come into the class knowing about or would not have pursued otherwise,” Carroll adds.

What you’ll get out of ART 207

By the end of the course, the instructors hope each student becomes a more technically proficient photographer and gains a deeper understanding of photography’s history, impact and place in society.

“Students will learn that photography is much more complex than just creating a beautiful photograph or a technically sound image,” Carroll says.