This class is both an introductory survey of the photographic book and a studio course where students will make simple books, utilizing page sequences, scale and layout. You will utilize on-demand book printing services such as Mag Cloud, Blurb, and others.  The photographic book will be studied while visiting collections Art Book collections at Wesleyan, along with others at nearby universities.

BEFORE THE FIRST CLASS:

Watch Benson, Talk 1: http://www.benson.readandnote.com/allvideo

FOR THE FIRST CLASS:

Bring in a favorite photo book from home or a photo sequence you’ve made in the past.

WEEK ONE

Class meeting 1: Introduction & Library Visit

Reading:
Richard Benson, The Printed Picture:  Part 5:  “Early Photography in Silver” and Part 6: “Non-Silver Processes.”
Parr and Badger. The Photobook, A History, volume I.  Introduction and Chapter 1, “Topography and Travel: The First Photobooks.”

Visual Assignment:
Make photographs in your home/yard. Bring in 10 5x7 images from the series to sequence in class. Due Class 3.

Class meeting 2: Exploration and science/Field Trip to the Watkinson Library at Trinity College

Anna Atkins.  Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. 1843.
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/ocean-flowers-anna-atkinss-cyanotypes-of-british-algae#/?tab=navigation
William Henry Fox Talbot.   The Pencil of Nature.  1844
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33447/33447-pdf.pdf
Timothy O’Sullivan.  United States Geographical Surveys West of the 100^th Meridian.   1871-74.
Gustaf Nordenskiöld. The Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde, Southwestern Colorado: Their Pottery and Implements, 1893.
Contemporary:  Edward Ranney, The Lines, Yale University Press, 2014)
Mark Klett, Second View: The Rephoto- graphic Survey Project, with Ellen Manchester and JoAnn Verburg, University of New Mexico Press 1984
Third Views, Second Sights, A Rephotographic Survey of the American West, Museum of New Mexico Press 2004

Reading:
Blair, Bob “William Henry Jackson’s “The Pioneer Photographer”: 66-79 (packet)
Fox, William, Viewfinder: Mark Klett, Photography, and the Reinvention
Of Landscape: Chapter Two, Chapter Four (packet)
Parr and Badger. The Photobook, A History, volume I, “Facing Facts: The Nineteenth-Century Photobook as Record” and “Photography as Art: The Pictorial Photobook”

Assignment:
Consider the photographic “archive” as you make or repurpose a collection of images.
Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel, Evidence  http://larrysultan.com/gallery/evidence/
Mark Ruwedel, http://galleryluisotti.com/artists/mark-ruwedel/images/

 

WEEK TWO

Class meeting 3: The emergence of the commercial photobook / European and American avant-gardes

Germain Krull.  Metal.  Librarie Des Arts Decoratifs,  1927.
Blossfeldt.  Urformen der Kunst.  1928
Alfred Steiglitz, Camera Work, 1903-1917
August Sander.   The Face of Our Time, 1929
Moholy-Nagy.  Malerei Fotografie Film.  1925
Paul Morand and Brassai.  Paris de Nuit.  1933.
Man Ray and Paul Eluard. Facile 1935
Henri Cartier Bresson.  The Decisive Moment.  1952

Reading:
Parr and Badger, vol. 1:  Chapter 4, “Photo Eye: The Modernist Photobook,”  Chapter 5, "Man Ray, Hans Bellmer, and Walker Evans;” and Chapter 4 “A Day in the Life: The Documentary Photobooks of the 1930s;" “Lewis Hine, Berenice Abbott, Paul Morand and Brassai, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Weegee,” and Chapter 7, “Memory and Reconstruction: The Postward European Photobook”

Double page spreads:
Go to the library and look at books studying the use of the double-page spread. Make copies of 4 spreads you find particularly effective. DUE NEXT CLASS

Visual Assignment (for two weeks):
Using August Sander as a base, create a series of portraits of a specific population.

Class meeting 4: Photo-textual documents of mid-20^th century America / Visit to the Beinecke Rare Book Library

Berenice Abbott. Changing New York 1939
Walker Evans.  Let us now Praise Famous Men.  1941
Laura Gilpin.  The Pueblos. A Camera Chronicle.
Weegee.  Naked City. 1945
Dorothea Lange.  An American Exodus .1939
Roy de Carava and Langston Hughes. The Sweet Flypaper of Life. 1955
Visual Assignment: Portraits, cont.

Double page spreads:
4 double page spreads of your own
Print 6 double page spreads

-4 Images with equal sizes, white space around them (rather than full bleeds) ¼ inch extra for the gutter. No text. Create a relationship between the images considering the form and content of the images.
-2 spreads using full bleeds.  DUE NEXT CLASS

 

WEEK THREE

Class meeting 5: Landscape

Ansel Adams.  Yosemite and the Range of Light.
Eliot Porter.  The Place No One Knew.
Robert Adams, From the Missouri West, 1980
Alex Soth.  Sleeping on the Mississippi.  2004.
Zoe Strauss.  America.  2008
Barbara Bosworth and Anne Kelley: The Meadow, 2015
Shristina Seely: Lux, 2016

Reading:
Parr and Badger, The Photobook: a History, Volume I: Chapter 8, “The Indecisive Moment: the Stream-of-Consciousness’ Photobook. focusing on the overview, Roy DeCarava and Langston Hughes, William Klein, Robert Frank, Aaron Siskind, Richard Avedon, Walker Evans, Danny Lyon, Gary Winogrand,  Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus, Ralph Gibson, Larry Clark., William Eggleston.  

Assignment:
Utilize stream of consciousness as described in Chapter 8 above to photograph a landscape that you know well. We will work with these images in class, focusing on image sequence and spreads as a vehicle of expression. You may work with the balance of the double-page spread and right or left facing image as part of your work with sequence. The sequence need not be narrative; it can be purely visual and/or conceptual.

Class meeting 6: The social fabric /CRITIQUE

Robert Frank. The Americans. 1958
Nicholas Dawidoff, New York Times Magazine. “The Man Who Saw America,” http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/magazine/robert-franks-america.htmlWilliam Klein. Life is Good and Good for You. 1956
Larry Clark. Tulsa. 1971
Susan Meiselas. Carnival Strippers. 1976.
Gilles Peress. Telex Iran.  1983.
Jim Goldberg. Raised by Wolves   1995
Jim Goldberg. Rich and Poor.  2014.
Nan Goldin. The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. 1986.
Carrie Mae Weems.  Selected Books
LaToya Ruby Frazier. The Notion of Family. 2014.

Reading:
Parr and Badger, Volume II: “Chapter 1: Mirrors and Windows: The American Photobook since the 1970s,” focusing on overview, Cindy Sherman, Bruce Davidson, Roy DeCarava, Slim Aarons, Les Krims, Robert Adams, Lee Friedlander, Gary Winnogrand, Eugene Richards, Harry Callahan, Lewis Baltz, Stephen Shore, John Gossage, Richard Avedon, Nan Goldin, Bill Burke, Alec Soth, Mitch Epstein
Nicholas Dawidoff, New York Times Magazine. “The Man Who Saw America,” http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/magazine/robert-franks-america.html

Assignment:
Choose one photobook that you strongly respond to and use that as a model for this weeks assignment: Sequence, plus text. Due class 8.

WEEK FOUR

Class meeting 7: The artists’ book movement

Ed Ruscha.  26 Gasoline Stations.  1963
Ed Ruscha.  Every Building on the Sunset Strip.  1966
John Baldassari  Brutus Killed Cesar  1976
Richard Long. Selected books such as River Avon Book. 1979
Gerhard Richter, Eis. 1981.   Reprint Walter Konig. 20ll
Hamish Fulton.  The Way to the Mountains Starts Here.  2002
Roni Horn.  Dictionary of Water.  2001.  (and other books)
Roni Horn. Verne’s Journey (To Place). 1995
Sophie Calle.  Take Care of Yourself.  2007

Reading:
Parr and Badger: Volume II, Chapter 4, “Appropriating Photography: The Artist’s Photobook” focusing on the overview and Gordon Matta Clark, Edward Ruscha, Andy Warhol, Richard Long, Christian Boltanski, Michael Snow, Hans Peter Feldman, Roni Horn, Gerhard Richter

Assignment:
Final Project

Class meeting 8: Contemporary strategies

Doug Aitken.  Diamond Sea.
http://www.lannan.org/art/exhibition-program/doug-aitken-diamond-sea/
Marnix Goosens. Yonder.  2013
http://www.ideabooks.nl/9789491843013-marnix-goossens-yonder
John Gossage.  Nothing.  2014. https://vimeo.com/121924017]
Rosangela Renno. A01 [COD.19.1.1.43] — A27 [S | COD.23].  2013.
http://josefchladek.com/book/rosangela_renno_-_a01_cod191143_a27_s_cod23
Melissa Cantanese, Dive Dark Dream Slow, 2012
Elizabet Tonnard, In This Dark Wood, 2013

Reading:
Chapter 9, “Home and Away: Modern Life and the Photobook,” focusing on the overview, Stephen Shore, Larry Sultan, Jim Goldberg, Rinko Kawauchi.
Parr and Badger, Volume II, Chapter 8, “The Dusseldorf Tendency: The New Objective Photobook,” focusing on the overview, Bernhard and Hilla Becher, Thomas Struth, Rineke Dijkstra

Assignment: Found/Appropriated
Create a book using found or appropriated materials. Materials may be scanned, or photographed.

 

WEEK 5

Class meeting 9: The Artist/Publisher & Small Presses

Surveys & Reviews:

Conscientious
http://cphmag.com/archives/

Photo Eye
http://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/index.cfmhttp://blog.photoeye.com

Ron Jude
http://www.a-jumpbooks.com/Home.htmlhttp://melaniephotoblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/interview-with-publisher-ron-jude-of.htmlhttp://www.ahornmagazine.com/issue_7/conversation_panar_jude/conversation_panar_jude.html

Jason Fulford
http://jandlbooks.org/JL.info.htmlhttp://www.thegreatleapsideways.com/?ha_exhibit=hotel-oracle-a-conversation-with-jason-fulfordhttp://www.artbook.com/iceplant.html

Ed Panar and Melissa Catanese
http://www.spacescorners.com/about.html
http://cphmag.com/conv-catanese/

Conveyor Editions
http://www.conveyoreditions.com/shop

Class meeting 10: Final Critique

Texts

Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook: A History Volume I,  Phaidon Press

Parr and Badger, The Photobook, A History, Volume II, Phaidon Press, 2006

Online:

http://www.artistsbooksonline.org

http://cphmag.com

https://www.photoeye.com

Reserve Books

I will place books, including those listed above (to be checked out for 2 days) on reserve in the Art Library. You may borrow the other books for 4 days.  Please request the book with its call number.  The class reserve list can be acquired on line by going to Library> Reserve Lists.

VIDEO: Richard Benson, The Printed Picture, The Museum of Modern Art http://www.benson.readandnote.com/allvideo

Making books: In this class you will be making at least 2 books.  Ordering a book to be printed on demand requires planning ahead in respect to time as it will take from 10-14 days before you have it in hand.

Libraries: We will make trips to a number of libraries, but I also expect you to explore book collections on your own, and to discuss books that inspire and inform your work as part of our critiques.

Some Books (see all the other books by these artists)

Brassai, Paris by Night, 1933

Walker Evans, American Photographs, 1938

Henri Cartier-Bresson, The Decisive Moment, 1952

Helen Levitt, Ways of Seeing, 1965

Robert Frank, The Americans, 1958

Danny Lyon, The Bikeriders, 1967

Ed Ruscha, Twenty Six Gasoline Stations, 1963

Larry Clarke, Tulsa, 1971

Lee Friedlander, Self-Portraits, 1970

Diane Arbus, Diane Arbus, 1972

Mike Mandel & Larry Sultan, Evidence, 1977

Stephen Shore, Uncommon Places, originally published in 1982, The Book of Books

Gilles Peress, Telex Iran, 1984

Nan Goldin, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, 1985

John Gossage, The Pond, 1985

Robert Adams, Summer Nights, 1985

Sally Mann, Immediate Family, 1992

Martin Parr, British Food, 1995

Lewis Baltz, Industrial Parks

William Eggleston’s, William Eggleston’s Guide, 2002

Todd Hido, House Hunting, 2007

Tim Davis, Lots, 2002

Alec Soth, Sleeping by the Mississippi, 2004

Sophie Calle, Exquisite Pain, 2005

An-my Lê, Small Wars, 2005

Tanya Marcuse, Undergarments and Armor, 2005

Anne Carson, Nox, 2009

Christian Paterson, Redheaded Peckerwood, 2011

Janelle Lynch, Los Jardines de México, 2011

Anne Carson, Nox, 2009

Paul Graham, Shimmer of Possibility, 2010

Mickalene Thomas, Origin of the Universe, 2012

Jason Fulford, This Equals That, 2014

Critique: On-screen versions of your book will be utilized, but you must have a physical photographs to sequence during critiques.  Later we will also focus on the materiality of your book – paper choice, scale, etc.

Presentation:  Each student will study in depth one photographic book and present that to the class.  

Grading: Your final grade is a letter grade based on the quality and timeliness of your work, and the thoughtfulness of your class participation.

Evaluation:

Visual assignments   30%
Books                      30%
Class participation    20%
Class presentation    20%

Attendance: Attendance in the course is crucial as we are completing a semester's worth of work in just five weeks.

Marion Belanger photographs the cultural landscape, particularly where geology and the built environment intersect.  In 2002 she was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship to photograph the contested landscape of the Everglades.  Rather than focusing only on the wetlands in the protected National Park, she also ventured into the drained and developed land of the historic Everglades region. In Spring 2016 Radius Books will release her book Rift & Fault, a study of the two land-based edges of the North American Continental Plate. Lucy Lippard has written the essay for the book.  Belanger earned a M.F.A. from the Yale University School of Art where she was the recipient of both the John Ferguson Weir Award and the Schickle-Collingwood Prize, and a B.F.A. from the College of Art & Design at Alfred University. She has been an artist in residence at the MacDowell Colony, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Virginia Center for the Arts, Everglades National Park, and MASS MoCA.  Her work is shown internationally, and is in many museum collections including the National Gallery for Art and The International Center for Photography.  A substantial archive of her work is housed at the Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. faculty bio for Marion Belanger