For all of my classes, I start each week off with introducing my students to a new historic or contemporary photographer. Depending on the weekly module, I will choose a photographer whose work is relevant to what the students are studying.
During Week 5 of PH123: Principles of Digital Photography, students are asked to photograph a still life for W5A1 and to photograph portraits for W5A2. Given this fact, I introduce the PH123 students to historic photographer, Irving Penn. A successful portrait and still photographer, Penn is the perfect example of a credible photographer for students to study during this week.
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| Penn, Irving, Balenciaga 'Little Great' Coat (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), Paris, 1950. Penn, Irving, Still Life with Watermelon, 1947. |
During Week 2 of PH136: Lighting I, students learn the difference between hard light and soft light. Shelby Lee Adams is a great contemporary photographer for students to study during this week because he uses mainly hard light within his environmental portraits.
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| Adams, Shelby Lee, Berthie with Pipe & John, 1992. |
Students have responded very well to the weekly inspirational photographers that I place in my classrooms:
Students who take my PH350: Time Based Media I course, are introduced to photographers who work with both the still image and the moving image. Throughout the course, students are not only learning how to shoot video with an HDSLR, and simultaneously record audio but they are also learning how to be visual story tellers. I try to choose new inspirational Time Based Media artists who fit into this "story telling" genre. During Week 5, students are introduced to Olivier Jobard who created a piece titled Kingsley's Crossing:
By introducing students to new photographers each week, this allows the students mind to expand beyond his/her photographic knowledge and hopefully, will inspire the students to push their own work further. Although no additional work is required by the students within these "inspirational posts", I often refer back to the Weekly Inspirational Photographer within my critiques to ensure that the students are in fact reading and understanding the posts.
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