In this three week workshop, photographer and Denis Rousell Fellow Beth Johnston will work with students/participants to examine the historical and cultural significance of landscape photography and how it relates to American conservation movements and the environmental ethos.
Students will explore the context in which photography was born by looking at historical and contemporary landscape photographers and how they engage with the genre, as well as how various cultures define and relate to land and landscape. Students will explore themes of nature and cultural divide, gaze, the embedded hierarchy of see-er (all knower) within photography, western landscape tradition, Hudson River School painters, transcendentalism, and romanticism, and use these tools to rethink and redefine the landscape genre.
Out-of-class photo assignments will encourage students to take what they are learning, questioning, and discussing and apply it to how they engage as photographers. Students should expect to spend at least 1 hour outside of class meetings on these assignments. Resources for further investigation (including additional photo-assignments, PDF’s of theoretical readings, podcasts, videos, and artist talks) will be provided for each meeting as well as at the end of the course.
Gear needed: Cameras can be any format (even phones!), digital or analog.
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