Course spotlight: ART 317 – Advanced Digital Photography

Course description: ART 317 – Advanced Digital Photography

In ART 317, you’ll get to deepen your understanding of the technical, aesthetic and conceptual aspects of photography. With a strong emphasis on idea development, interaction with classmates’ work and constructive criticism, you’ll create a short video and physical objects, including printed photographs and a book.

Your instructor: Betsy Schneider 

Betsy Schneider is ready to guide you to new artistic horizons — and she wants you to get there in an environment that’s creatively freeing.

“We push students to figure out what they care about,” she says. “We don’t tell you what to photograph. Discovering it for yourself is really important.”

An artist herself, Schneider has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. In 2011, she was named a Guggenheim fellow, and she is a 2021 recipient of a Global Sport Institute seed grant.

How you’ll learn

Practice, practice, practice. ART 317 pushes students to take many pictures to hone their skills. Midway through the course, students will create a virtual book (which can be printed to order), and they’ll arrange their pictures in specific sequences to explore the way sequencing can affect meaning.

Schneider also emphasizes feedback from peers to help students further improve their skills. Students can expect to use Slack for casual conversation, and attend optional Zoom critique sessions.

“Feedback and critique is essential because, as people who make photographs, we need to understand how they’re being read by other people,” Schneider says. “Being able to communicate with your peers about what they see and what they value not only teaches you what your work is doing, but it also teaches you to receive critical feedback.”

And in ART 317, it’s all about getting real photography experience.

“Students should be prepared to go out and take pictures when they’re not entirely sure what they’re doing or what the pictures are going to be about. They should be open to making discoveries and to exchanging ideas with their peers,” Schneider says.

What you’ll get out of ART 317

“We get students to the place where they start to figure out their own creative interest, and they are able to try different things,” Schneider says.

Schneider enjoys seeing students discover what they really care about artistically by creating art in many different ways. 

“They make a video, they make a book, they practice sequencing. It’s a very exciting moment to be teaching when students are making these discoveries,” she says.