PH 603 - The Language of Photography - Assignments

Weekly assignments for The Language of Photography course in the first semester. Assignments given out are due for submission the next week. Photograph(s) are to be printed typically on an A4 size photo-paper. But you can choose to get a smaller or larger print if you desire.

Everyone puts their work on the wall, to get critiqued by the instructor and at times even by the students.

Assignment 1: Signature photograph
Get one photograph that represents you currently as an artist. It doesn't have to be new


This is one of the photographs made while I was travelling in Leh in mid 2011. A buddhist monastry forming a beautiful landscape, plus the dramatic sky adds to the appeal of the photograph. I would quite easily put it among the best I had.












Assignment 2: Visual Communication.
Take a photograph vs Create a photograph. Get two new photographs, one you feel that is taken and the second that you feel is created.

My room-mate, Mahendra, was kind enough to pose for a photographs. The taken photograph was a casual iPhone photo while the created photograph was one where the subject was placed closed to a large source of window light with a few other composition elements in place.











Assignment 3: Photography and Communication.
Create two unique photographs that each communicates something different.


This photography focuses on architecture and symmetry. Taken in the Grade Cathedral at Nob Hill.

while this one is done for the mood it evokes: loneliness, loss, nostalgia.















Assignment 4: Begin Miderm Poject.
Get one photographs working towards your mid-term. More on this is the Midterm blogpost.

Assignment 5: Aspirations, Influences and Inspirations.
Describe your aspirations, influences and inspiration. Ge one supporting image.

Though I didn't do enough research to findout whose work inspires and influences me. I worked towards getting a photography out which represented the kind of work I liked - architectural photography, geometry and symmetry.

The Coit tower

The second part of the assignment was to submit a 1 page paper describing the work of the photographer that is your influence and/or inspiration.













Assignment 6: A Theme.
Create 3 new images, that follow a common intellectual theme.

The common theme was people on stairs. All of them being black and white photographs helps towards creating a more coherent theme.

Its not that I had planned and shot people on stairs, but it so happened that from all the shooting I was doing over the last two weeks I had three photographs from different shoots which had very similar characteristics. Not my proudest moment folks, feels like I took the easy route on this one.

Assignment 7: No Assignment. Midterm submission due on week 8.

Assignment 8: Genre and Intent
Create a photograph that clearly fits into one of the following Art for Commerce, Documentary, Fine Art.

A photograph taken at Castro street, the heart of the LGBT community in San Francisco. Being nude in public is not against the law here, and some would unbashedly go for the full monty. The photograph was intended to be documentary in nature. The tilt in the photograph is intentional and conveys a sense of not being straight.

The rainbow flag flying high, the unique three lamp cast iron street lamp, the radio towers on the hill in the background, the criss-crossed cables all over, and the naked guy - you are unmistakably in San Francisco's Castro St. You do not need a written sign or a gps to tell you that.













Assignment 9: Research a photographer
Research about a photographer. Find an essay, article or interview about him and submit a 1-2 page summary of your thoughts on his work.
The written submission here. (coming soon)

Assignment 10.1: White paper.
Photograph a piece of white paper. Be creative.

Something as simple as photograph a white piece of paper can get complicated, especially when you want to do something creative with it.

Not proud of what I finally produced, it is what it is.












Assignment 10.2: Self-Portrait.
Create a self-portrait. Be creative. make it about who you are and not just what you look like.

Assignment 11: One image towards your final project.
Get one photographs working towards your finals.

A photograph take inside the City Hall in San Francisco. Though a technically good photograph in the lines of architecture photography, this one eventually didn't make the cut off to be part of the eight photographs selected for the finals. More on what made it to the finals in the Finals blogpost.











Assignment 12: Third Effect
Create a polyptech of different images that when viewed together create a "third effect".

Assignment 13: Description Interpretation and Evaluation
Bring one photograph towards the finals. Also submit written content - description, interpretation, subjective and objective evaluation of your own work.

A night shot of the interiors of the TransAmerica Pyramid. A strong sense of symmetry and dramatic lighting is what makes the photograph.

The one page evaluation here (coming soon).



















Assignment 14.1: No assignment. Finals next week.
More on this is the Finals blogpost.

Related posts
First Semester @ AAU
PH 603 - The Language of Photography
PH 603 - The Language of Photography - Midterms
PH 603 - The Language of Photography - Finals