Re: The value of the handmade

>>> richsul@earthlink.net 03/16/05 10:27 AM >>>

>>We teach digital photography in the Fine Art Photography Department
and
they teach it down the hall in New Media Arts. Both units have their own

galleries For what it is worth the differences in output is stunning.
Everyone over there is Jerry Uelsmann. Media Art's work is largely
combinational images or images that have had lots of detail removed,
lots
of smoothing over, or applied filters-- in a word its Photoshopped to
death. They teach Photoshop, we teach digital photography. I am an old
fuddy duddy and believe that much of art comes from imposed restraints.
The
painter has to deal with the fact that the canvas has edges and that it
is
not infinite. My other complaint is that much of the work is related to
building an image that has internal conflicts or things out of context.
I
once mentioned this to a friend of mine visiting, not knowing she had
moved
to digital work. The first print she showed me was "Fish in Outer
Space."
This mind you is a two year college so the we are really still down at
the
basics. For me I expect students to work first in a traditional way,
learn
to deal with the constraints of a straight image and not have the luxury
of
digging through a box of crummy negatives and becoming the next Jerry
Uelsmann.<<

Richard,

A while back you surveyed the list on the topic of school photography
programs and their orientation towards traditional photography and
digital programs. I found your above description of the different
orientations between programs at a single school interesting and
pertinent to some political stuff I'm peripherally involved in at my
workplace.

Can you (or have you, do you plan to) share the results of your survey?

Thanks,

Joe
Received on Wed Mar 16 11:21:15 2005