> *photographic drawing* class. I was fed up with the title 'alternative >
> processes' for all the reasons cited over the last weeks on this list,
> but > couldn't think of anything else to call the class. >
--------------------snip.....................
Photography
> students from my experience enroll in photography in order to avoid drawing.
> Anyway drawing soon found its way back on the curriculum. And I was no better
> off for a name for my class.
> Here endeth the tale.
>
> Catherine Rogers
>
> PS now alternative processes, such that it is here, in the mid 90s, is called
> 'extending photography'. But I don't teach it, it's not in any demand because
> it's still not very popular (well not at all popular) in Australia. I did
> capture the imaginations of a few students with pinhole cameras last year after
> a short workshop - so maybe there is hope...>
Hi Catherine, I loved your story, as I'm sure did the multitudes.
But your description of trendoid curricular swings takes me back to my own
art school days: I was at Cooper Union during the most rabid ravages of
abstract expressionism -- early '50s. Naturally it offered only one
semester of photography, yet the school did in fact have a course called
"Materials," in which a knowledgeable fellow tried to teach us things
like varnishes, gesso-making, oils, undercoats, archivality of pigments,
etc. etc. But we were ARTISTS, PAINTERS, which is to say, in those
days,free spirits, beatniks, POETS. We tuned it out as completely as
possible. Almost immediately after graduating it occurred to me that
those circular wrist motions of the ab-ex painter were no longer
fulfilling and I needed to know something about such processes as
underpainting & glazing, mixing materials, yellowing, cracking, flaking,
etc. I had a half sheet of scrawled notes. I pored over it, wracked my
memory, typed it out, got it by heart. Useless. Finally acquired and
started slogging through Doerner (forget it, not quite translated from the
German), then Mayer, better, & actually of some help rosebud@why.net (tho art materials
are in a way like nutrition -- about every 10 years revealed wisdom takes
a 180 degree turn).
Don't know what the moral of my story is either, something about hindsight
being too late I suppose. But Catherine, have you tried:
Handcoated Photographs
Photography as a Mark-Making Process
Photographs on Artists' Paper
Neo-Pictorialism
Off the Factory -- making your own photographic paper
Non-Silver Photography
Oh well, just asking......
PS. This of course is all Richard Sullivan's fault, for bringing the
subject up in the first place.
Judy
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