COURSE 02, WEEK 07 - Oceans of Images

Part 1 - Introduction

1.1. Introduction to Ocean of Images

Before 1888, making photographs was difficult, requiring specialized training and cumbersome equipment. In that year, the Eastman Kodak Company introduced an inexpensive, easy-to-use, handheld camera, which promised: “You Press the Button, We Do the Rest.” With photography accessible to a much broader audience, anyone could take a picture. Since then, evolving photographic technologies have made taking and distributing pictures increasingly simple, with the result that photography has become ever more fully integrated into daily life. Now, with the proliferation of digital cameras, smart phones, and social media platforms, trillions of images are shared online each year, adding to those we encounter on television, in print publications, and in advertisements. It can seem that we are submerged in an ocean of images.

Since the 1960s, artists have been exploring both the means and the effects of our constant exposure to images and the power they have in shaping our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Artists demonstrate that images are malleable—that their meaning is not necessarily fixed but, rather, can be determined by a great number of external factors. They are examining the methods and technologies used in making and circulating images, and the ways in which these systems affect how the images are viewed and interpreted. They consider the use and manipulation of images in advertising and the mass media, and, perhaps most importantly, analyze how our engagement with images today affects our relationships with truth and reality.

Learning Objectives

• Examine the role of evolving photographic technologies in our past and present visual culture.

• Discover some of the ways artists examine—and frequently disrupt—current methods of image production, presentation, and circulation.

• Analyze how the use and manipulation of images in advertising and the mass media affects our relationships with truth and reality.

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Part 5 - Review & Respond

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Review…

1. The following have contributed to the proliferation of photographic images:

   1. The Kodak Brownie Camera;

   2. The internet;

   3. Digital cameras; and

   4. Social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram.

2. Sara Cwynar created the film Modern Art in Your Life to explore how values and social norms are constructed and reinforced through art history and the popular images we encounter in our lifetime.

3. Thomas Ruff made the photographs for his Jpeg Series by downloading images he finds online and blowing them up to many times their original size.

4. David Horvitz describes Mood Disorder as an artist book that shows what can happen when a copyright-free stock image is posted online.

5. The series House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home by Martha Rosler pairs images of war and of the home interiors.

6. Carmen Winant's work, My Birth:

   1. Contains over 2,000 found images sourced from books, pamphlets, and magazines;

   2. Is motivated by Winant's own experience of rarely seeing images of women giving birth; and

   3. Appreciates the ambiguity of the title since My Birth could refer to the moment in which she was born, or the moment in which she had her own child.

7. The Watering Hole by Lyle Ashton Harris features images appropriated from all of these sources:

   1. Pictures of pop cultural icons;

   2. Antique ethnographic postcards with racist depictions of Black men; and

   3. Press and police photographs of Jeffrey Dahmer and his victims.

8. Gertrude Käsebier belonged to a group of artist photographers known as the "pictorialists” whose goal was to elevate and promote the status of photography as a fine art.

9. André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri patented the carte de visite.

10. Artist Edson Chagas makes posters from their photographs and makes them available for people to take and redistribute?

COURSE 02, WEEK 06 - Pictures of People

Part 1 - Introduction

1.1. Introduction to Pictures of People

On the surface, photographic portraits appear to convey the characteristics of individuals before the camera. However, portraits represent much more than their literal depictions. Many factors impact how a portrait is made and perceived. The relationship between the sitter and photographer, the location where the portrait was made, the subject’s awareness of the camera, as well as their gestures, poses, and clothing—each one of these elements affects not only the final image, but our interpretation of it.

It is no surprise that portraiture and self-portraiture have been among the most common forms of photography throughout the medium’s history. Even today, portraits remain an integral part of how we understand ourselves and others. This module will explore a variety of portraits depicting subjects both known and unknown. By studying these, we will understand how pictures of people have been used to establish identities for individuals and groups, reclaim power and agency, and document the important relationships that inform our place in the world.

Learning Objectives

• Discover how the choices made by both photographers and subjects inform our assumptions about those depicted.

• Compare how photographers build and record relationships with people depicted in their photographs.

• Analyze how subjects exercise agency and perform identity in photographic portraits.

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Part 5 - Review & Respond

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Review…

1. The following statements are true about Susan Meiselas’s intention for making the series Carnival Strippers:

   1. She became close with the women she was photographing and showed them contact sheets of the photographs she took of them so they could select the ones they liked;

   2. If she had owned a movie camera, she would have made Carnival Strippers as a film, instead of as a book with related audio; and

   3. She was interested in finding a way to visualize the relationships the women had with either other and with their own bodies.

2. Details like the subject’s awareness of the camera, as well as their gestures, poses, and clothing, affect the way we interpret portraits.

3. According to Katy Grannan, the covers of fashion magazines feature the most cruel kinds of pictures because they are dishonest, unrealistic depictions of people.

4. Harry Callahan used his wife as a model to create images that experimented with different photographic processes and techniques, such as double exposure.

5. Zanele Muholi choose to photograph members of the Black South African Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) community:

   1. To present the existence and resistance of this group through positive imagery;

   2. To create a record of the history of Black South African LGBTI individuals; and

   3. To engage in a form of visual activism.

6. The series Cargo Cults by Stephanie Syjuco responds to which historical style of photography known as Ethnographic studio portraiture.

7. The following statements apply to Akram Zaatari’s work, After They Got the Right to Arms. Fourteen young men posing with guns:

   1. To create this work, Zaatari examined images from the archive of a commercial photography studio where clients paid to have their portraits taken; and

   2. In making this work, Zaatari discovered that studio portraits are in part created by the people who are in them who perform imagined roles.

8. From the 1970s through the 1990s, Rosalind Fox Solomon documented race relations and the legacy of discrimination in the American South. Neo-Nazi and white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia inspired her to respond by compiling and publishing these photographs.

9. The following statements best describes Deana Lawson's appreciation for photography; “She considers it the best medium for expressing issues of self-representation, the body, and questions about beauty.”

10. To create a portrait of the people of the 20th century, August Sander created over 600 photographs of people and divided them into seven groups representing distinct subsections within German society.

COURSE 02, WEEK 05 - Constructing Narratives, Challenging Histories

Part 1 - Introduction

1.1. Introduction to Constructing Narratives, Challenging Histories

While photography has the capacity to tell personal stories and record events, photographs can also be powerful tools in complicating accepted truths and realities. Since the beginning of the medium, photographers have turned their cameras onto themselves and those closest to them, chronicling, challenging, and reimagining their identities and the society that shapes their practice. Photographs can clarify or complicate our understanding not only of intimate moments in time, but also historical narratives and current cultural issues and events. 

We often perceive photographs as windows onto situations or scenes that extend beyond the edges of the picture frame, but through context and alterations, images can also distort our understanding of the world. Contemporary artists, increasingly critical of the purported objectivity of photographs, appropriate and re-contextualize images drawn from mass media, pop culture, archives, and museums. In doing so, they seek to reveal biases, challenge accepted histories, and construct new narratives.

Learning Objectives

• Critique the ways photographs have been used to shape our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

• Understand how artists have re-contextualized images to challenge accepted histories.

• Analyze how context and presentation of photographs influences the way we understand historical narratives and current cultural issues and events.

Video > MOMA. “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried | Carrie Mae Weens | UNIQLO ArtSpeaks.” YouTube, 29 Jan 2021.

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Part 5 - Review & Respond

5.2. Creative Challenge: Create a Portrait

In A Card for J.R. Plaza by Iñaki Bonillas and Untitled Film Stills by Cindy Sherman, the artists use photography to enact different identities. Using any camera you have available, create a portrait or self-portrait. Share the image, describe the choices you made, and what you aimed to convey and why.

I shot and composed this photograph on February 12, 2023 while I was hospitalized following a stroke I suffered on January 31, 2023. The photo was created in the style of a David Hockney joiner, a composition which uses many photos of a subject which are put together to form an intricate photo collage. For Hockney, joiners are able to show reality as we see it, in fragments, by showing different sides and angles of the same subject. In addition to playing with different points of view, a joiner can include photos taken at different points in time.

I chose to do this self-portrait in a joiner style to relate to how disjointed and exhausted I felt after my stroke and a struggle with chickenpox. I used 13 different photos to make the composition with Photoshop Mix, which does limit the number of layers you can use in a single project. I chose a square format for the composition so I could easily post it to Instagram, which favours a square photo format. I didn’t have any choices in regards to the clothing I wore, which was limited to a hospital gown and a pair of boxing shorts I had. My hair was a mess, even though I was showering again by this point. My skin looked worn from the rash the chickenpox gave me.

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Review…

1. Hank Willis Thomas used advertisements that ran in magazines including Ebony and Jet for his UNBRANDED series (1968–2008).

2. To make Movie-Television-News-History, June 21, 1979, Sarah Charlesworth took all of the following steps:

   1. Collecting several newspapers that were published on the same day;

   2. Photographing the front pages of newspapers; and

   3. Removing content from the front pages so that only the images, captions, and headlines remain.

3. The following statements are true about Carrie Mae Weems’ From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried?

   1. It examines how Africans and African Americans have been depicted in photographs over time;

   2. Weems uses both text and images to construct a critical narrative; and

   3. Weems framed the images with an oval or circular matte to mimic the effect of looking through the lens of a camera.

4. Felice Beato's album of photographs of the Second Opium War (1860) is not considered to be an unbiased early record of the conflict.

5. The following statements about Cindy Sherman’s series, Untitled Film Stills are true:

   1. Sherman photographs comment on stereotypical portrayals of women;

   2. There are seventy images in the series;

   3. Sherman does not consider these to be self-portraits; and

   4. The style of the photographs resemble promotionals photographs for Classic Hollywood, film noir, B movies, and European art-house films

6. Hank Willis Thomas makes the following arguments about advertisements:

   1. They rely on prejudices;

   2. They do not accurately represent society;

   3. It's important to look critically at advertisements; and

   4. They play a huge role in how we see ourselves and other people.

7. Photographs can clarify or complicate our understanding of intimate moments in time, historical narratives, and cultural issues and events.

8. Walid Raad’s My neck is thinner than a hair: Engines, sought to underscore and question photography's authority and a photograph's status as evidence.

9. The following served as inspiration for Dionne Lee’s artwork:

   1. Survival skills;

   2. The history of landscape photography; and

   3. Trauma, displacement, and personal history.

10. In Harrell Fletcher's series, The American War (2005), it was not very important to him to use a professional camera that captured high quality images.

Hank Willis Thomas. The Refreshest, 1987. 2007. Chromogenic color print, 29 15/16 x 20 5/8" (76.1 x 52.4 cm).

Hank Willis Thomas. It's the Real Thing!, 1978. 2006. Chromogenic color print, 27 x 24 1/8" (68.6 x 61.3 cm).

Sarah Charlesworth. Movie-Television-News-History, June 21, 1979. 1979. Twenty-seven chromogenic color prints, printed 2010, each approx. 22 × 14" (55.9 × 35.6 cm).

Detail from Sarah Charlesworth. Movie-Television-News-History, June 21, 1979. 1979.

Carrie Mae Weems. From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried. 1995–96. Fourteen of 33 chromogenic color prints with sandblasted text on glass, each 26 3/4 × 22" (67.9 × 55.8 cm) or 43 1/2 × 33 1/2" (110.4 × 85 cm).

Carrie Mae Weems. You Became a Scientific Profile. 1995–96. Chromogenic color print with sand-blasted text on glass, 23 7/8 x 19 15/16 (60.7 x 50.7 cm).

Felice Beato. Interior of Pehtang Fort Showing Probyn’s Horses. 1860. Albumen silver prints, 9 7/16 × 23 1/4" (24 × 59.2 cm).

Cindy Sherman. Untitled Film Still #13. 1978. Gelatin silver print, 9 7/16 x 7 1/2" (24 x 19.1 cm).

Walid Raad. My neck is thinner than a hair: Engines. 1996–2001. One hundred pigmented inkjet prints, each 9 7/16 × 13 3/8" (24 × 34 cm).

Detail from Walid Raad. My neck is thinner than a hair: Engines. 1996–2001.

Harrell Fletcher. The American War. 2005. Two diptychs from a series of 59 pigmented inkjet prints, ranging from 18 × 24" (45.7 × 61 cm), or the reverse, to 10 1/2 × 14" (26.7 × 35.5 cm).

COURSE 02, WEEK 04 - One and Another

Part 1 - Introduction

1.1. Introduction to One and Another

Photography is a mechanical process. One consequence of this is that multiple images have been essential to the medium from its earliest days. Photographers can make multiple prints from a given negative, and can edit groups of images into series. Photographs can be gathered into albums and sequenced in books, and new meanings often emerge from these combinations. Technological advances have repeatedly facilitated the ease and speed with which photographers can produce multiple images, and the artistic possibilities have multiplied alongside them.

A photograph can be a singular, independent object, but what new possibilities and meanings occur when images are paired or combined? This week, we will explore the different ways artists have taken advantage of photography’s capacity for multiplicity—by weaving pictures together in photo books and albums; by grouping images to create a series or body of work; and by investigating the ways multiple images can be combined into new, indivisible works.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the impact of photography’s reproducibility.

• Understand how photographs have been combined throughout the medium’s history to offer alternative approaches to individual images.

• Consider how albums and books have expanded and facilitated access to photographs and photographic imagery.

VIDEO - MOMA. “Stephen Shore | HOW TO SEE the photographer with Stephen Shore.” YouTube, 25 Jan 2018.

VIDEO > MOMA. “How mass media representations shape us | Cindy Sherman | UNIQLO ARTSPEAKS.” YouTube, 13 Nov 2020.

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Part 5 - Review & Respond

5.2. Discussion Prompts & Creative Challenges

5.2.a. Reflect on your responses to the art and ideas we explored this week. What was new or surprising to you?

As I explore photography as a student through my own emerging artistic practice, I’ve found that understanding and more importantly, actualizing the concept of a sequence or series of photographs for the purpose of connecting ideas and telling stories has become important for me. From this module, I’ve found that photography can make it easy to make a sequence or series (which Martian-Webster defines as representing “…a number of things, events, or people of a similar kind or related nature coming one after another; a group or a number of related or similar things, events, etc., arranged or occurring in temporal, spatial, or other order or succession.”) of photographs that share a thematic or narrative conceptual bond.

Specifically, Merriam-Webster describes how a sequence can be thought of as a list of elements with a particular order (the following of one thing after another; succession, or order of succession), a continuous or connected series, such as:

“a: an extended series of poems united by a single theme (a sonnet sequence);

b: three or more playing cards usually of the same suit in consecutive order of rank;

c: a succession of repetitions of a melodic phrase or harmonic pattern each in a new position;

…

f:

(1): a succession of related shots or scenes developing a single subject or phase of a film story;

(2): EPISODE (a usually brief unit of action in a dramatic or literary work; a developed situation that is integral to but separable from a continuous narrative; one of a series of loosely connected stories or scenes; an event that is distinctive and separate although part of a larger series).”

Photographer Taya Ivanova, in her article, “What is a Photo Series? (12 Cool Photo Series Ideas to Try)” for EXPERT PHOTOGRAPHY explains how:

“A photography series is a collection of images that are linked and showcased together. A series of photos will often have the same theme and have a conceptual bond. Sometimes they’re shot at the same location. And photo series are often edited in the same style to focus on coherence.

Photographer Drew Hopper, in his article, “Photo tip of the week: How to shoot a photo series” for AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY relates the idea of shooting in a series to telling a story, as he describes how:

“Stories are integral to human culture and storytelling is timeless. In photographic practice, visual storytelling is often called a 'photo essay' or 'photo story'. It's a way for a photographer to narrate a story with a series of photographs.”

VIDEO > The Art of Photography. “SERIES BASED PHOTOGRAPHY.” YouTube, 22 Jun 2016.

Mary Warner Marien, in the 5th edition of her book, “Photography: A Cultural History” describes how:

“The idea of the photographic series—that is, of creating and arranging images in meaningful sequences—was increasingly adopted in historical, archeological, travel, scientific, medical, and even art photography. During the medium’s earliest years, compilations of dissimilar and unrelated images, such as those found in Lerebours’s Excursions Daguerriennes and Talbot’s The Pencil of Nature, were prevalent. But as photography proliferated, arrangements of related images were published more frequently. Photographic series expanded the notion of photography from that of an image-making process to something akin to writing. Nineteenth-century albums and books containing interrelated pictures underscored the photographer’s skill in building up what the twentieth century would know as the photographic essay. Slowly, commentators began to concede that some photography—series, aesthetic endeavors, and scientific improvements—involved intellectual exertion, a claim that would serve to distance professional and serious amateur photographers from itinerant and part-time practitioners” (49).

Later, Warner Marien explains how photographic series have become a modern and contemporary tool of photographers:

“Many postwar photographers worked in extensive series based on life experiences, be they road trips or observations gained through insight and meditation. The scope of these series, dramatized by the photographer’s unique perspective on how to order the images, propelled the photographic book into prominence. The rhythm, connections, and contradictions of form and subject generated by sequenced images had a lasting impact on contemporary photographic practice” (355).

Finally, Maria Short, Sri-Kartini Leet, and Elisavet Kalpaxi, in their book, “Context and Narrative in Photography,” examine how Bernd & Hella Becher used their series to explore the German industrial landscape, describing how:

“The way in which an image is presented  is an important aspect of the context in  which it is seen and therefore interpreted.  Size, shape and ordering of images are  the main ingredients that inform how a  series of images relate to each other or  highlight the significance of a single image. 

Typology sets, or series, are a simple  but effective way of enabling the viewer  to compare the detail within a group of  photographs. Typology is simply the study  of types. Photography can be used in a  consistent manner to produce a set of  related images, as with Jamie Sinclair’s  images, and illuminate aspects of either  the subject or conceptual approach. The  presentation of the typology group, such  as in a grid formation, can be integral to  the interpretation and also an exercise  in considering how viewers understand  the relationships between one image and  another within the exhibition space. The  German artists Bernd and Hilla Becher  photographed industrial buildings for over  forty years, starting in 1959, and made  black-and-white photographs of types of  industrial structures using a large format  camera, often exhibited in grid format.  They employed a rigourously consistent  way of working – each structure was  photographed from a similar angle and  under similar lighting conditions. In relation  to their presentation, Michael Collins (2002)  explains in Tate Magazine: ‘By placing  photographs of similar subjects alongside  each other, the individual differences  emerge, making the fine details in each  picture more noticeable, more distinct.  Drawing on this, they began exhibiting the  pictures as typologies... the typology  was the work... a symphony of industrial  structures.’ Presenting their work in a  grid, as mentioned in chapter 1, ‘The  Photograph’, was one of the methods  the Bechers employed to draw attention  away from documentary and toward form.  In other bodies of work, such as Lalage  Snow’s, noticing the ‘fine details’ is integral  to the documentary function of the work” (97).

VIDEO > Michael Blackwood Productions. “BERND AND HILLA BECHER: 4 Decades [trailer].” YouTube, 15 April 2019.

5.2.b. Which of the artists or works particularly resonate with you or open up different perspectives on art or the world today?

Knowing that Frances Benjamin Johnston worked as a female commercial portrait photographer, as well as one of the first photojournalists, while pursuing a career as an artist resonated with me. From the discussion about her practice, it appears that she worked to bridge the gap between photography as being simply representational to existing as works of fine art. In the series of works she did for the Hampton Institute, she brought her experience as a commercial photographer to the table, in how she carefully composed the frame and directed the subjects appearing within it. This process would have allowed her to craft and design the vision she had for each photograph as well as for the entire series.

5.2.c. What new questions did this week raise for you?

This week did provide me with the opportunity to explore the idea of photographic series or sequences in greater detail. I am curious about what leads a photographer to the decision that multiple photographs could be shot to explore a concept, idea, story, or theme as opposed to using a single image to represent that concept, idea, story, or theme. As a student of photography, I understand how it can be more difficult to edit a series down so one is using less photographs, or even a single photograph, to communicate a photographer’s overall intent. This is also true for writing, as a common exercise for writers is to write something, and then go back to edit it by cutting it in half, and still conveying the emotions and ideas of the original piece. A similar exercise for screenwriters or playwrights is to write a scene with dialogue, and then cut the amount of dialogue in half, and then in half again, and then without any dialogue. I think when one works with film photography, you definitely think more as you are usually limited by how many images you can shoot: 24-36 images on a 35mm roll of film. Maybe a dozen with medium format film, and then just a single plate with large format film cameras. I think it can be a good practice for any creative person - to learn how to work with less. But then, depending on the subject, if you are the Bechers for example, photographing many industrial buildings in Germany, then the strength comes through the repetition of the images, combined with how they are composed, and displayed.

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Review…

1. Some of the ways artists take advantage of photography's capacity for multiplicity include:

   1. By weaving pictures together in photo books and albums;

   2. By grouping images to create a series or body of work; and

   3. By combining multiple images into new, indivisible works.

2. Zoe Leonard uses order and repetition to build a narrative in her series, Analogue.

3. For the series, Circulation: Date, Place, Events, Takuma Nakahira did not take and meticulously compose the photographs several years before displaying them at the Seventh Paris Biennale.

4. Frances Benjamin Johnston's The Hampton Album:

   1. Featured photographs used to promote the work of the Hampton Institute;

   2. Saw Frances Benjamin Johnston depict both vocational and academic activities at the Institute; and

   3. Saw it’s photographs exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900.

5. Leslie Hewitt likes to "explore the limits of a single photograph, a single perspective" by layering images, objects and materials and photographing them.

6. The following is consistent about all the photographs in Nicholas Nixon's series The Brown Sisters:

   1. The sisters always stand in the same order;

   2. Nicholas Nixon always uses an 8 × 10 inch view camera;

   3. Each year one photograph is added to the series; and

   4. Nicholas Nixon's wife always poses for the photos.

7. The Departure and All in One by Aida Muluneh both belong to the series The World is 9.

8. Sohrab Hura's series Snow:

   1. refers to the history of violence in

      Kashmir;

   2. show the passage of time through the lens of changing seasons; and

   3. Saw Hura listen to the stories of people he met in Kashmir to create the series,

9. Books have served as the source material for Iñaki Bonillas' series Marginalia.

10. The photograph Trolley -New Orleans by Robert Frank:

    1. was included in the photo book The Americans 1958);

    2. depicts a segregated bus with white

       passengers seated toward the front and

       Black passengers toward the back; and

    3. was taken only weeks before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

Zoe Leonard. Analogue. 1998–2009. Chromogenic color prints and gelatin silver prints, each 11 × 11" (27.9 × 27.9 cm).

Detail from Zoe Leonard. Analogue. 1998-2009.

Takuma Nakahira. C-177 from the series Circulation: Date, Place, Events. 1971. Gelatin silver print, printed 2013, 12 5/8 × 18 7/8" (32.1 × 48 cm).

Takuma Nakahira. C-084 from the series Circulation: Date, Place, Events. 1971. Gelatin silver print, printed 2013, 12 5/8 × 18 7/8" (32.1 × 48 cm).

Frances Benjamin Johnston. Stairway of the Treasurer's Residence: Students at Work from The Hampton Album. 1899–1900.

Leslie Hewitt. Riffs on Real Time. 2002–05. Chromogenic color print, 30 × 24" (76.2 × 61 cm).

Nicholas Nixon. The Brown Sisters, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1977. Gelatin silver print, 7 11/16 × 9 11/16" (19.6 × 24.5 cm).

Nicholas Nixon. The Brown Sisters, Truro, Massachusetts. 2011. Gelatin silver print, 17 15/16 × 22 5/8" (45.6 × 57.5 cm).

Aïda Muluneh. The Departure. 2016. Pigmented inkjet print, 31 1/2 × 31 1/2" (80 × 80 cm).

Sohrab Hura. Untitled from the series Snow. 2015–ongoing. Pigmented inkjet print, 24 x 24" (61 x 61 cm).

Iñaki Bonillas. Marginalia 7. 2019. Pigmented inkjet print, 50 13/16 × 43 5/16" (129 × 110 cm).

Robert Frank. Trolley–New Orleans. 1955. Gelatin silver print, 9 1/16 × 13 3/8" (23.1 × 34 cm).

- END OF WEEK 04 -

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COURSE 02, WEEK 03 - Documents and the Documentary

Part 1 - Introduction

1.1. Introduction to Documents and the Documentary

Because of photography’s inextricable connection to the real world—light sensitive film records what is before the camera’s lens—many descriptive photographs are considered documents, and the mode of making them is often called “documentary.” We’re going to explore work by many different makers across eras that has engaged with this idea to help build an appreciation for just how complicated it can be. Generations of photographers have turned their cameras to the world around them with the aim of taking pictures that record, remember, or bear witness. In the twentieth century, many photographers made images in the service of larger social causes. Newspapers and magazines came to rely on photographic illustrations to underscore the meaning of their stories and, conversely, text was called upon to shape viewers’ understanding of what they were seeing.

 By the 1960s, many photographers began to feel constrained by the editorial control imposed by the popular press. They sought other outlets for sharing their work including publishing their own books. This coincided with the emergence of documentary projects that were intentionally inflected with personal meaning, made to question and subvert the perceived truthfulness of the medium or call attention to its political, social, and ethical complexities. Today, photographers continue to use the camera as a means of documenting the world, acknowledging that their images are not fixed statements of fact but, rather, that they may be read and interpreted in many different ways.

 Learning Objectives

• Analyze the reliability of photographs and the ways photographers reveal, manipulate, and critique truth.

• Examine how words in and around photographs impact our understanding of them.

• Compare the ways photographers have used the documentary style for personal expression and in service to larger social causes.

Video > MOMA. “Sarah Meister: Seeing Through Photographs.” YouTube, 10 Feb 2017.

Video > International Center of Photography. “2023 Infinity Award: Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism - Zora J. Murff.” YouTube, 30 Mar 2023.

Video > TroikaEditions. “FORMAT 15 Beyond Evidence.” YouTube, 6 Apr 2015.

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Part 5 - Review & Respond

5.2. Discussion Prompts & Creative Challenges

5.2.a. Reflect on your responses to the art and ideas we explored this week. What was new or surprising to you?

I feel it’s important to remember how the “documentary in photography” is a subject that reflects on two considerations. First, it reflects on what it means for a photographer to make a photograph. That is, it reflects on how the meaning conveyed by a photograph will always be impacted by the choices a photographer makes when shooting and editing it. Secondly, documentary photographs are also impacted by how they are displayed and discussed.

Which of the artists or works particularly resonate with you or open up different perspectives on art or the world today? 

Anna Atkins’s work stands out for both its aesthetic beauty and contribution to botany. Her use of the cyanotype process allowed her to make impressions of the ferns she was studying rather than the drawings that had been done before. It’s also inspiring to learn that she is considered the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images, and may have been the first woman to create a photograph.

Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel’s work, Evidence, was a book published with archival photographs that were not produced by Sultan and Mandel. Their work explores the idea of context and how it impacts the meaning behind both individual photographs and photographs presented together as a part of a series (in this case, a book). Specifically, the photos were taken out of their original contexts, and placed into new ones without any other reference as to where or when the photographs were taken. The photos also speak to the idea that although they are of events that actually happened, but as a viewer looks at the work they are bringing their own context to bear when determining what the photographs might mean.

What new questions did this week raise for you?

Photography has always had the potential and the ability to capture and document events around the globe. And today, more than ever before, with the availability of digital cameras of high quality built into small hand held smart phones, events large and small, can be documented and sent out to the world within minutes, even seconds. Even many high quality digital cameras, can be paired to a smartphone, tablet, or computer to allow a photo to be downloaded and redistributed very easily.

In 2011, the revolution in Egypt, often referred to as the Arab Spring, is considered to be the world’s first smartphone revolution as they played an integral role in getting the story out about what was taking place.

That same year, in Vancouver, Canada, many people were able to capture and distribute images and videos of the riot that broke out in the aftermath of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoff loss of the Vancouver Canucks to the Boston Bruins. Bystanders to actual rioters posted images to social media, which law enforcement were able to use to identify and charge those who took part in the looting and destruction of stores, cars and other property. But there have been questions about some photos, and whether they faithfully represent what happened. For example, one famous photo shows a couple on the ground kissing. Some have questioned whether this was a decisive moment that was captured.

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/17/vancouver-kiss-couple-riot-police

Ultimately, it’s the almost universal accessibility of photography today has really brought new meaning to the idea of documentary photography and the citizen journalist.

5.2.b. Creative Challenge: Cropping Photographs

How does the way a photograph is cropped affect how we connect with the subject of the image? For example, in Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, the focus on the mother’s face may help viewers to empathize more deeply with the family’s plight. Share a photograph that you have cropped and say why you made that decision. Alternatively, post a photograph you have found and explain how the composition or cropping influences how you understand the image.

I took this photograph at the opening of an art exhibition featuring the work of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami held on February 2, 2018. I don’t usually crop my photos but did a specific crop available in Photoshop that let me ensure the main artwork was straight across the horizontal plane of the image. A more dramatic change had me using Photoshop’s clone stamp tool to remove the visual distraction of the base of a sculpture that protruded into the bottom left corner of the image. When I shot the image, I found there was no way to get the figures in the frame straight on without the base being visible, nor could I move further to the right without unwanted items on the right protruding into the image.

Overall, I think the image is stronger without the base being seen. I do wish I had stood further back though, so the couple’s shadow reflection on the floor was completely within the frame. A friend of mine, who is much stronger than I am with using Photoshop, suggested I remove the thin white line seen running along the bottom of the artwork. I ultimately chose to leave it in as it represents part of what’s in many galleries - a protective stanchion that keeps people from getting too close to the artwork. I also didn’t want to remove it because it reminds one that this is still an art gallery. 

5.2.b. Creative Challenge: Words IN Pictures

Dorothea Lange and other FSA photographers understood how including signs, such as billboards and hand-painted notices, could help capture economic and social conditions. Take or share a photograph that includes words and explain how the words influence your understanding of the photograph.

This was a photo I took on March 7, 2023. I was attracted to the words “DREAM BIG” which I made the focus of the composition. It was spray painted on the door of an older strip mall, which has several empty shops and an abandoned movie theatre that shuttered during the pandemic. Along the back of this mall sits a relatively unused parking lot and a laneway. As such, it does have homeless people frequenting it, as the lot itself is somewhat hidden from the main roadway. The area is close to a major bus route, although buses don’t go past this specific spot. The overall area this small strip mall sits in is more of an upper class neighbourhood, so it can be odd to stumble onto this area as a lot of what surrounds it features newer pristine buildings.

I found it interesting that the words “DREAM BIG” are the most prominent words in the image. The graffiti tags above it are largely illegible to someone just passing by, which is okay, as the purpose of tags is for an artist to have their tags recognised by other artists in their area. A small election sticker is slapped above “DREAM BIG,” encouraging people to vote for anyone but Chesney, a local municipal council member. The door itself is interesting, it feels strong and tough, cemented in by the heavy bricks around it which make up the rest of the building. There are four locks on the door, two of which have rust forming on the edges. Ultimately, “DREAM BIG” feels like a message for the poor that frequent the area, and for those occupying the middle and upper class of the area, all of whom may be unhappy with the direction their lives have taken them.

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From: December 23, 2019

When I started this course in December 2019, it had different reflective questions attached to some of the weekly units. The following are my responses to the original Week 03 questions attached to this course.

In what instances might we accept photographs as evidence or accurate records?

In this week’s slideshow it was noted how “Photographers often seek to capture a reliable view of the real world through a camera’s lens.” Ultimately, this quote emphasizes the idea that photographs can serve as objective documents of evidence and an accurate record of what has happened, as portrayed within the photograph itself. On the MoMA website, it is mentioned how “Photography is often perceived as an objective, and therefore unbiased, medium for documenting and preserving historic moments and national and world histories, and for visualizing and narrating news stories.” It also notes how photographs can “...bear witness to history and even serve as catalysts for change.” The MoMA overview also notes how these photographs can stir emotion in people, “foster sympathy,” and shed light on important issues, “...people, places and events.”

What makes photography’s relationship to truth so complicated?

Photography’s relationship to the truth is complicated for several reasons such as:

• a photographer’s relationship to what they are photographing;

• the decisions made about what photos are selected to be shown (either online, or in a magazine or in an exhibition) by a photographer, publisher / editor, or a curator;

• the decisions made in how digital or analog editing by a photographer, photo curator and / or photo publisher; as well as

• how shown photographs are discussed by viewers.

First, in terms of how the relationship between photography and the truth is complicated the unit’s slideshow does discuss how most photographers try to produce reliable images of the world they encounter. But this can be complicated, as the slideshow also noted how a photographer’s formal decisions impact the relationship the content of their photographs have with the context of the truth being presented, as: “...all photographs are necessarily shaped by how the photographer frames his or her subject, a process that introduces a personal point of view or perspective into even the most seemingly objective documentary photographs. Knowing this, some artists play with the notion of authenticity in their photographs.” Further to this, in the video interview with photographer Mike Mandel, Mandel discusses how people forget about the choices photographers make when he describes how: “The photograph is a complete abstraction… from the fact that we use different f-stops to create different depths of field, different illusions of motion. And different dark room capabilities of enhancing contrast, and all the things built into photography that people just totally ignore, and just read right through...”

Secondly, the decisions made about what photos are selected to be shown (either online, or in a magazine or in an exhibition) by a photographer, publisher / editor, or a curator can also impact how photography’s relationship to the truth is complicated. Maurice Berger, in her 2015 article for The New York Times, called “Gordon Park’s Harlem Argument,” explains how: “‘The Making of an Argument’ is an illuminating exercise in visual and racial literacy, investigating how words and images communicate multifaceted realities, convey points of view and biases, and sway or manipulate meaning” where “...the hundreds of photographs taken for the story were whittled down to the few published in Life, the editorial selection process, as Mr. Lord noted in his catalog essay, raised questions about authorship and meaning: ‘What was the intended argument? And whose argument was it?’ “ Ultimately, it seems reasonable to assume that the answers to these kinds of questions will shape the truths each viewer negotiates with the images.

Thirdly, the decisions made in how digital or analog editing by a photographer, photo curator and / or photo publisher can impact the can impact photography’s relationship to truth. Today, using digital software tools such as Adobe Photoshop, it’s become ever increasingly simple to alter photos. If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard someone exclaim how “...that photo must have been Photoshopped,” I’d be able to buy a really nice dinner. Today, we live in a world where the noun ‘Photoshop’ has become an active verb and this undoubtedly has created a mistrust of photographs (and by extension, videos) as being representative of the truth. In this week’s slideshow, the discussion Carleton Watkins revealed how: “Watkins affixed to its mount a certificate vouching for the authenticity of its content.” Today, this doesn’t always happen. In photographer Ted Forbes’s 2015 YouTube vlog entry, “Photography: Truth or Beauty,” Forbes discusses the implications the Economist dealt with when it was revealed how their cover photo of President Obama was glaringly edited to remove several individuals. Forbes discusses how the impact of these changes to a Reuters image created a dramatic image that shows Obama “...staring down, pointedly deep in thought in front of the Gulf itself with an oil rig in the background.” Hany Farid, in his essay “Photo Forensics: From Stalin to Oprah” notes how dictators “...understood the power of photography. They understood that if you could remove someone from a photo, you could effectively remove them from history.” To this end, the individuals with Obama in the Reuters photo have effectively been removed from history. Following publication, Reuters ended up issuing a statement saying how they did not alter the photo, and that they did not support photo manipulation. Here is a screen capture of the Economist photo as compared with the Reuters original:

<<PHOTO>>

You can find this video here:

https://youtu.be/CfQY5hps_ZA

Today, truth in photography and the media in general has become even further complicated by the tribalism that has taken over politics, as exemplified (but certainly not limited to) by people such as American President Donald Trump who has declared the media to be ‘the enemy.’ But what’s interesting to note is how this has been an issue that photographers have struggled with for decades, and it’s one whose roots stretch farther back than the development of Photoshop. Handy Farid, in his 2015 article “Photo Forensics: From Stalin to Oprah” argues that “Photography lost its innocence almost at its inception.” For example, in this week’s slideshow discussion of photographer Gordon Parks, it is noted how: “Of the hundreds of images Parks took, Life’s editors chose 21, which they cropped, printed, and sequenced into a narrative emphasizing the drama and sensation of the conflicts. Many magazine photographers, including Parks, resented the way the meaning and interpretation of their work was skewed. In subsequent decades, they and other photographers who had largely depended on illustrated magazines for their livelihoods reclaimed editorial control of their images by publishing them elsewhere, without such manipulation.”

Finally, photography’s relationship to truth is also complicated by how photographs are discussed by artists and viewers. The introduction to this unit touches on this idea, saying how: “...text was called upon to shape viewers’ understanding of even seemingly straightforward pictures.” The introduction also stated how: “Today, photographers continue to use the camera as a means of documenting the world, acknowledging that their images are not fixed statements of fact but, rather, that they may be read and interpreted in many different ways.” In many ways, these readings and interpretations are the foundation for how photographs are discussed. As time moves forward, so to does the context of viewers who examine photographs, highlighting how images are interpreted and discussed can change over time. In “The Photographic Record” article on the MOMA website, it is noted how: “Many contemporary artists have taken on photographs and photographic archives as the subject of their own work, re-examining and re-interpreting the histories they convey through methods ranging from appropriation to digital manipulation of existing images. In doing so, they seek to reveal biases, challenge accepted histories, and construct new narratives.” Wang Ya Mu, in response to Hany Farid’s article “Photo Forensics” argues that: “Since image tampering is nothing new, it somehow creates a wide space for different readings for people with different political inclinations regarding “authenticity”... we have shifted from the paradigm of to-see-is-to-believe to believe-what-you-believe.”

In what ways do a photographer’s artistic choices and point of view affect the meaning of a picture?

In my answer to question two above, I quoted the introduction to this week’s slide show which described how every photograph is influenced by the formal decisions a photographer makes when composing and making an image. These choices can include in-camera choices that impact how the photo is framed and exposed; and the choices can also include post-processing decisions (whether they occur in the darkroom or on a computer), such as: how a photograph is printed in terms of contrast and filter choices, whether a negative or digital photo is cropped, or whether it is processed using traditional techniques or alternative techniques, as well as whether pictorial elements are added or removed.

The photographer also has influence over the content of their photographs in respect to the context in which it is created - both of which affect the meaning of the final image that is produced. This week’s slideshow revealed how the context that say Gary Winogrand brought to the decisions he made in selecting his subject matter of the everyday differed from the context that Carleton Watkins brought to his photographs that were designed to attract people to come purchase land in the American west. Both photographers brought very different contexts to the photographs they created, contexts which were impacted by the needs of their time, as well as the history of photography up until that point in their lives.

It’s interesting though how on the MoMA website’s discussion of Dorothea Lange’s photography, it has been noted that commissioned photographs can negatively taint how a photograph is considered, and that such photographs can even be viewed as examples of propaganda in support of a very specific agenda or point of view. To this, Lange argued that: “Everything is propaganda for what you believe in, actually, isn’t it? I don’t see that it could be otherwise. The harder and the more deeply you believe in anything, the more in a sense you’re a propagandist. Conviction, propaganda, faith.”

Finally, in moving beyond the focussed discussion of this week’s unit - I read how Pete Brook, in his article for Wired Magazine called, “Photographs are No longer Things, They’re Experiences” argues that today, in our immediate contemporary moment, “Photography is less about document or evidence and more about community and experience.”  Brook interviews Stephen Mayes, director of “VII Photo Agency,” who argues that the move from analogue to digital photography marks a move from a fixed image to a fluid image, where: “Analog photography is all about the fixed image to the point that fixing is part of the vocabulary. The image doesn’t exist until it is fixed. It can be multiplied, reproduced and put in different contexts but it is still a fixed image. The digital image is entirely different: it is completely fluid. You think about dialing up the colour balance on the camera, there’s no point at which the image is fixed. More importantly than that, images now live in a digital environment. Given that an image is defined by its context it exists in a perpetually fluid environment in which the context is never fixed. Images’ meanings morph, move and can exist in multiple places and meanings at one time.” This clearly moves control of an image from that of the content producer photographer or publisher and into the hands of individual viewers.

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Review…

1. Many photographers have used their cameras to take pictures that record, remember, or bear witness to both historical and personal events.

2. In publishing the guide Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843), Anna Atkins is considered to be:

   1. The first female photographer; and

   2. The first person to publish a book illustrated with photographs.

3. Larry Sultan and Mike Mandal’s Evidence seeks to explore the ways in which context influences our understanding of photographic images.

4. Dorothea Lange’s photograph, Migrant Mother (1936), was used to document and raise awareness of the impact of the Great Depression on families across the United States.

5. Opening in 1967 at the Museum of Modern Art, the exhibition New Documents presented the work of Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, and Garry Winograd, all known for working in the documentary mode to make personal statements.

6. The following statements are true about Gordon Parks and his photo essay “Harlem Gang Leaders”:

   1. It was published in Life Magazine;

   2. The series captured the life of Red Jackson, a leader of the Midtowners Gang; and

   3. Many of the images are ambiguous in their meaning and subject to multiple interpretations.

7. Arthur Rothstein was criticized for staging their photographs and exaggerating experiences during the Great Depression.

8. Gauri Gill’s series, Acts of Appearance, was a collaborative project between the artist and her subjects.

9. Eugene Atget made more than 10,000 pictures of Paris, France.

10. By the 1960s, many photographers began to feel constrained by the editorial control imposed by the popular press, including the editors of newspapers and magazines.

Anna Atkins. Aspidium Lobatium. 1853. Cyanotype (photogram), 12 3/4 × 8 5/8" (32.4 × 21.9 cm).

Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel. Evidence. 1977. Artists’ book. Publisher: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. © 1977, 2003 Mike Mandel and Larry Sultan. © 2003 D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. All illustrations © 2003 Mike Mandel and/or Larry Sultan.

Dorothea Lange. Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California. 1936. Gelatin silver print, 12 13/16 × 10 1/8" (32.6 × 25.8 cm).

Garry Winogrand. Central Park Zoo, New York City. 1967. Gelatin silver print, 8 7/8 × 13 3/8" (22.5 × 34 cm).

Lee Friedlander. New York City. 1962. Gelatin silver print, 5 1/4 × 8" (13.3 × 20.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Carl Jacobs Fund.

Diane Arbus. Puerto Rican Woman with Beauty Mark, New York City. 1965. Gelatin silver print, printed by Neil Selkirk, 14 11/16 × 14 5/8" (37.3 × 37.2 cm).

Gordon Parks. Harlem Gang Wars. 1948. Gelatin silver print, 10 15/16 × 10 1/2" (27.9 × 26.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Arthur Rothstein. Skull, Badlands, South Dakota. May 1936. Gelatin silver print, 7 3/8 × 7 1/2" (18.7 × 19 cm).

Gauri Gill. Untitled from the series Acts of Appearance. 2015–ongoing. Pigmented inkjet print, 28 × 41 15/16" (71.1 × 106.5 cm).

Eugène Atget. Boutique, 12 rue des Lyonnais. 1914. Albumen silver print, 6 7/8 × 8 11/16" (17.5 × 22 cm).

- END OF WEEK 03 -

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COURSE 02, WEEK 02 - One Subject, Many Perspectives

Part 1 - A New Moon

1.1. Introduction

The moon is among photography’s most enduring subjects. Artists, scientists, commercial photographers, and amateurs alike have long used all methods and technologies at their disposal to capture views of the moon that might not be perceived by the naked eye. In the nineteenth century, scientists sometimes worked around the limitations of available technology by photographing drawings or models of the moon that were based on observations through a telescope.

Today, even those parts of the moon that cannot be observed from Earth have been photographed. The manifold ways in which the moon has been recorded—from close up, with its cratered surface shown in vivid detail, to distant and glowing in a vast night sky—have not only increased scientific knowledge of our planet’s closest neighbor but also reflected the emotional pull it has always had on us. More recently, artists have critiqued the imperial gaze directed at outer space, making visible the ways in which the moon has often been depicted as a territory to colonize.

Learning Objectives

• Discover photography's roots in both art and science by observing the diverse ways the medium has been used across time to capture a single subject familiar to us all.

• Learn how technological advancements have influenced photographic depictions of the moon.

• Analyze the narratives of discovery conveyed by photographs of the moon and their omissions.

Video > MOMA. “Vik Muniz: Equivalents | ARTIST STORIES.” YouTube, 10 Feb 2016.

Video > Christie’s. “Eugène Atget’s Lost Photographs of Paris.” YouTube, 11 Nov 2016.

Video > SFMOMA. “Liz Deschenes on her cameraless photography.” YouTube, 11 OCT 2018.

Video > Marc Silber. “Ansel Adams Most Famous Photograph: Moon Over Hernandez.” YouTube, 23 Jun 2016.

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Part 5 - Review & Respond

5.2.a. Reflect on One Subject, Many Perspectives

Reflect on your responses to the art and ideas we explored this week. What was new or surprising to you? Which of the artists or works particularly resonate with you or open up different perspectives on art or the world today? What new questions did this week raise for you?

I wasn’t aware that the term “vernacular photography” referred to photographs made for non-artistic, commercial purposes.

I also appreciated how a lot of the work presented here weren’t just of the moon itself, but of events and ideals related to the moon and space travel. From Eugene Atget’s “Pendant L’Eclipse” which was a photograph of Parisians observing a solar eclipse in 1912; to Aleksandra Mir’s “First Woman on the Moon at Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York, February 15–March 1, 2003” and Cristina de Middel’s “The Afronauts,” which were about minorities who are not traditionally involved in space exploration.

One area I’d like to see explored more are contemporary fine art photographs of the moon taken today, especially in light of ever more powerful cameras, lenses and telescopes available to people today. Are there artists like Edward Steichen and the Photo-Secessionists working with images they made of the Moon?

5.2.b. Creative Challenge: Shoot for the Moon

You’ve explored many ways that artists have photographed the moon. Now add your photograph of the moon! Take or share a photograph of the moon. Feel free to interpret this assignment creatively—maybe the moon won’t be visible at all in your photograph, or moonlight will be an element in your process. The sky is not your limit! Tell us about your process and the decisions you made.

Steven Hanju Lee. “Midnight.” February 11, 2023.

I’m stuck in isolation in the hospital, following a stroke and a bout with chickenpox, and although I have a view, the moon isn’t visible tonight. So I took a page from artist Vik Muniz, and shot photographs of the hospital room floor. I then adjusted the photo’s brightness, contrast, highlights, and shadows to create the abstracted image seen here.

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Review…

1. Vernacular Photography is the umbrella term for all photographs that were created as non-artistic, commercial purposes.

2. Leandro Katz photographed different lunar phases to construct an alphabet they used to write a complete sentence.

3. The photograph, After Haul (1958), by Suirei Kubota was circulated through newspapers.

4. People observing a solar eclipse is depicted in Eugene Atget’s photograph Pendant l’Eclipse (1912).

5. In the early nineteenth century, before the invention of satellite technology, telescopes aided photographers and scientists in taking pictures of the moon.

6. Edward Steichen used chemical processes for creating colour in his work Moonrise - Mamaroneck, New York (1904), to demonstrate that the medium of photography should be considered a fine art, like painting or drawing.

7. The following statements about Ansel Adams’s work, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico (1941) are true:

   1. Over the course of several years and multiple printings, Adams adjusted the colour contrast of his photograph to make the moon whiter and the sky darker;

   2. Each print of the photograph comes from the same negative; and

   3. It is divided into three vertical bands, including the darkness of the sky, the lightness of the cloud, and the barren landscape.

8. Aleksandra Mir’s work, First Woman on the Moon (1999) responds to:

   1. The Apollo 11 landing, when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon; and

   2. The idea that space exploration was solely a male venture.

9. The series of stapled gelatin silver prints in Surface of the Moon, Day 319, W-F (1967) by NASA recall photomontage and collage.

10. The choices photographers make are influenced by the technology available at the time.

Leandro Katz.

Left: Lunar Alphabet II. 1978–79. Gelatin silver prints, 96 5/8 × 29 3/16" (245.5 × 74.2 cm).

Right: Lunar Sentence II. 1978–79. Gelatin silver prints on six panels, overall 111 1/2 × 167" (282.2 × 424.2 cm).

Suirei Kubota. After Haul. c. 1958. Gelatin silver print, 10 3/4 × 13 3/4" (27.3 × 34.9 cm).

Eugène Atget. During the Eclipse (Pendant l’éclipse). 1912. Gelatin silver printing-out-paper print, 6 7/16 × 8 5/8" (16.3 × 21.9 cm).

Edward Steichen. Moonrise–Mamaroneck, New York. 1904. Platinum and ferroprussiate print, 15 1/4 × 19" (38.7 × 48.2 cm).

Ansel Adams. Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico. 1941. Gelatin silver print, 15 × 18 1/2" (38.1 × 47 cm).

Aleksandra Mir. First Woman on the Moon at Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York, February 15–March 1, 2003. 2003. Invitation flyer, sheet, 11 × 8 1/2" (27.9 × 21.6 cm).

U.S. Geological Survey and NASA, Surveyor III. Surface of the Moon, Day 319, W-F. 1967. Cut and stapled gelatin silver prints with ink and gouache on diazotype, 14 1/2 × 30 3/8" (36.9 × 77.1 cm).

- END OF WEEK 02 -

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COURSE 02, WEEK 01 - Introduction to SEEING THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHS

Since its invention in 1839, photography has helped us document, understand and interpret the world. It has been reinvented continually through technological advancements and by the diverse ways in which artists and professionals have used it. Today, taking, sharing, and viewing photographs has become second nature for many of us. Given our near-constant engagement with images, this course will help you dig into the meaning of pictures and reconsider photography’s role in our visual culture. 

Part 1 - Introduction to the Course

1.6.a. Introduce Yourself

Welcome to the Seeing Through Photographs community! You’re joining hundreds of thousands of international learners who have taken this course. If you're comfortable sharing, please help us get to know you by telling us where you're from and more about your interest in photography. What brought you to this course and what are you hoping to learn or experience? Please feel free to post an image you have taken as well.

I’m Steven Lee, and I started this course back in 2020 but never finished it. Sadly, I’m in quarantine in the hospital right now having contracted chickenpox as part of a bad reaction to a new diabetic drug I was placed on last week following a stroke I suffered following a stroke I had on January 31, 2023. To that end I cracked COURSERA open to start finishing off stuff I never completed and yesterday I finished MODERN ART AND IDEAS. I’m also a third year bachelor of fine arts student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. I like these short courses as they are helping expand my breath of knowledge in different areas including fine arts, digital marketing, photography, and creative writing.

The attached photo, “FADED PLACES” is a 20"x28" digital daytime long exposure I shot on February 23, 2019. Standing on Gore Avenue, looking south from Cordova Street in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side, this daytime long exposure blurs the people walking on the sidewalks and slightly blurs a truck that passed through the frame to stop for a moment - becoming eerily reminiscent of the kind of truck infamous serial killer Robert Pickton might have driven as he prowled the streets looking for his next victim.

1.6.b. Discussion: A “beautiful, useful, or consequential” photograph

Marvin Heiferman says, “Photography is used by everybody and everybody uses it for all sorts of reasons. Images can be beautiful… useful... and consequential for all sorts of reasons.” What is one image that has been beautiful, useful, or consequential for you? Post it or describe it, and tell us why you feel that way about it.

One photograph that was consequential for me was by Vietnamese photographer Nick Ut, called “The Terror of War / Napalm Girl,” taken on June 8, 1972. I remember first encountering the photograph in a high school history textbook, and I remember being deeply captivated by the image in a way I hadn’t been before. The central figure of the anonymous naked girl, screaming in agony as she ran towards the camera, stood out first and foremost for me. Secondly, the crying boy to her left also stood out. Both of their faces shout out about the experience of unspeakable horror and pain. Behind them, four soldiers and behind all of them, a sky darkened by the thick smoke of war. Ut’s photo needed little explanation: it was a definitive anti-war photograph, there was nothing that glorified the experience and even the soldiers walking look tired. I later learned how this photograph spread across the world, and helped turn public sentiment against the war. I also learned how the American government even tried saying that the photo was a fake, until photos and video by other reporters collaborated Ut’s work from that day. Ut’s editors even sensed that there might be pushback against the photo and what it represented, and as such they sent the photo out completely unedited. Ut was 21 when he took this image, and the young girl who had been so horribly burned was only 9. And I was probably 15 years old when I encountered this photo, so in many ways all of us involved in this moment were linked by the virtue of being so young. In an ideal world, none of us would ever even be involved in such things. But we don’t live in such a world, which is why it’s important for tools like photography to exist.

1.6.c. Photography Changes Everything

Marvin Heiferman asked over 100 people how photography changed what they did. How has photography had an impact on your life? Share a story about photography's impact on your life.

Photography has impacted my life in many ways. Firstly, photography has provided me with a means of preserving memories and experiences with my family and friends. I enjoyed taking photos of my friends especially, although I tried taking photographs where it wasn’t necessarily apparent that I as a photographer was there taking a photograph. I also didn’t like appearing in photographs when I was younger. And for a period of time as a teenager I tried taking vacation photos while excluding members of my family, and simply trying to record the memories of places we visited. But by doing that I created a disconnect between us and the experiences of the places we visited: they were essentially devoid of content and context, two essential elements of any photograph.

Secondly, photography has provided me with the opportunity to explore conceptual ideas, issues, and events in a style that bridges the worlds of documentary photography and fine art photography. Specifically I’ve created works that explore environmental issues as well as social justice issues.

Finally, since 2020, I’ve used photography to explore aspects related to my own life, including exploring my struggles with anxiety, depression, being overweight, binge eating, having diabetes, and high blood pressure. I’m also trying to come to grips with having suffered from a stroke on January 31, 2023, which has left the right side of my body incapacitated.

- END OF WEEK 01 -

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COURSE 01, WEEK 05 - Art & Society

Part 1 - Overview

1.1. Introduction to Art & Society

Explore works of art created in response to the social, cultural, and political issues of their time. Gain a deeper understanding of history and contemporary society. Be encouraged to think critically about world events and how they are depicted.

Many artists create work in response to the social, cultural, and political issues of their time. This theme offers a deeper understanding of history and contemporary society, and encourages you to think critically about world events and how they are depicted. The introduction video is the place to begin. It focuses on three works of art—an iconic Depression-era photograph by Dorothea Lange; Martha Rosler’s photomontage protest against the Vietnam War; and Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s expression of love and loss through two wall clocks—through which you will explore this theme. The slideshow expands upon these artworks and features many more, ranging from Michael Rakowitz’s parasitical and custom-designed homeless shelters to Kerry James Marshall’s quiet painting of a black police officer that encapsulates the complexities of race and policing in 21st-century America.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze works of art created in response to the social, cultural, and political issues of their time.

• Examine how world events are depicted in works of art.

• Evaluate the role of art in developing engaged citizens.

Part 3 - Read & Review

3.3. Art & Society Discussion Prompt

Can art make us better, more engaged citizens? If so, in what ways? If not, why? Support your opinion by referencing or posting an image of an artwork, either one you’ve found or one you’ve created. Then, respond to another learner’s post that resonates with or interests you.

Art can make us better, more engaged citizens. Specifically, art can raise awareness about issues citizens might not have known about otherwise. Art can prompt citizens to learn more about specific issues. Art can also provide a vehicle for citizens to have conversations about challenging issues. And, art can inspire citizens to take up action on specific issues.

In the 2018 exhibition VORTEX, Canadian artist Douglas Coupland created a sculpture and several large installations at the Vancouver Aquarium using plastic waste Coupland found and collected along the coastline of British Columbia. Coupland’s goal behind displaying these artworks was to create awareness and discussion about the large volume of plastic waste that regularly ends up on our shores.

See: https://flic.kr/p/LEikdo

In 2010, I made a series of photographs to illustrate the large amount of waste generated by consumers who fail to properly dispose of their single use, hot coffee cups. I made the photos look like advertisements by the coffee chain TIM HORTONS as a way of cultivating awareness and discussion about the issue. EVERY CUP TELLS A STORY had been a campaign designed to allow customers to share heartwarming stories about how Tims coffee had brought them together with friends and family. Here, the slogan also serves as a reminder of how every cup also has a story of waste attached to it.

See: https://flic.kr/p/8SGGU2

After you’ve gone through this process, describe how would you introduce this theme to your students. What question could you ask or what activity could you develop to give them an entry point into the theme?

I’d ask students to brainstorm issues and causes that are important to them. I’d then have them share what they came up with and I’d record them on a large whiteboard so everyone could see the results. If different students came up with similar ideas that fit a common overall idea, they’d get grouped together (for example one student might be interested in plastic waste, and another might be concerned about deforestation - so both of those fit into the larger issue of environmental protection). Ideally there would be several common themes that emerge where students could be broken into a few small groups and asked to collaborate together on the creation of a mixed media collage about their issue.

3.5. Weekly Reflection

Reflect on what you learned this week. What did you learn that was new or surprising?

It was fascinating to learn how imagery can be molded during the process of creation to best represent the ideas an artist wishes to convey. For example, Dorothea Lange made five exposures  before capturing the one that would be known as MIGRANT MOTHER. With each shot, Lange was closer and tighter to her subject, and had chosen specific elements to either include or exclude.

Did any of the artworks resonate with you?

Martha Rosler’s use of contrasting found imagery in her HOUSE BEAUTIFUL (BRINGING THE WAR HOME) series helped to highlight the stark differences between the harsh realities of the Vietnam war and the notions of the American dream being sold in glossy magazine stories and advertisements. I also appreciate the grassroots level this project began at, as leaflets distributed to every day people.

Did your perspective on any of the artworks change by looking at them through this week’s theme?

As I learned more about the story behind MIGRANT MOTHER, I learned how myths about certain characters and events can be created. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, rather it highlights how a narrative can be constructed to serve a certain ends, in this case, about how this woman was made to possibly look less privileged than she was. For example, she was not a part of the nearby farming community, and had been waiting for her husband and son to return with parts to fix their vehicle so they could move on in their search for work.

Part 4 - Lesson Choices

Learning Objectives

• Analyze works of art created in non response to the social, cultural, and political issues of their time.

• Examine how world events are depicted in works of art.

• Evaluate the role of art in developing engaged citizens.

4.1. Written Reflection

Think about the themes we explored in this course: Places & Spaces, Art & Identity, Transforming Everyday Objects, and Art & Society. Find a work of modern or contemporary art (made after 1880) in a museum collection. In 150-300 words, describe the work and connect it to one of the themes. You can either explain how it reflects at least two of the key ideas explored in that theme or compare it with two artworks explored in that week of the course. Indicate the artwork title, artist(s), date, and medium by including this information with your submission or linking to the page about the artwork on a museum’s website.

Questions to consider when writing (optional):

• Why did you select this artwork?

• How does this artwork resonate with something in your own life?

• Does this artwork connect to other themes within the course and if so, how?

Tips: You can select an image from MoMA’s website or another museum website. Refer to each week’s learning objectives to review some of the key ideas explored.

Note: If you have submitted the final assignment but it is marked as incomplete, you may still need to peer review others' responses, and have your submission reviewed. This process can last a few days, so your work may not be marked as complete immediately. Read more about peer review assignments.

Two artists, two times: two beds

Artist Tracey Emin’s 1998 installation, MY BED, is a work which fits the ideas explored under the unit, TRANSFORMING EVERYDAY OBJECTS. Specifically, the art work is composed of a box frame and mattress, with linens, pillows and various objects which. In this case, Emin’s MY BED is similar to Robert Rauschenberg’s 1955 work, BED, in that they both contained objects that belonged to the artist’s. The unit describes how:

“(Rauschenberg) called it Bed because it was his quilt and pillow. It was called art because it was on the wall. (Rauschenberg explained how): ‘Painting relates to both art and life. I try to act in the gap between the two.’ Critics didn't know what to call it. Was it a painting? Was it a sculpture? Rauschenberg ended up calling it a combine.”

Further, the unit discussed how:

“Many artists use everyday objects—like beds, bicycle wheels, and teacups—to challenge assumptions about what constitutes art and how it should be made.”

Beginning with work by Duchamp, “Readymade's challenged every definition of art ever.” Neither Rauschenberg’s work nor Emin’s work was either handmade by the artist, nor was it considered beautiful. But both bring otherwise banal everyday objects into the gallery space in order to give them new meaning.

In terms of transforming objects, the unit notes how: “The idea that if you alter an object, it alters your perception of what that object is.” The unit also teaches how: “Rauschenberg blurs the line between an object that exists in the world and an object that exists as a work of art.” And while Rauschenberg has physically altered his found objects through the formal medium of painting, Emin’s work stands out for not so much how she has altered the objects, but in how she has placed the objects in front of gallery viewers as a physical segment of her life at a specific point in time.

Finally, I chose to look at MY BED because of the personal connection Emin had with everything in the piece, without judgment, all of which had been used by the artist during a time when Emin had suffered from a depression brought about by a traumatic breakup. In many ways, Emin’s installation works like an autobiographical snapshot of that specific moment in time from her life, containing all of the elements that existed in the moment she came out of her depression. Having suffered from my own mental health issues I can relate to how a bed can represent a place of escape, refuge, and safety for someone who is suffering. But in this case, Emin’s work differed from Rauschenberg’s, in that Emin’s tackles the emotional issues associated with the objects, whereas Rauschenberg’s work tried to avoid such questions. Rauschenberg’s work was a reaction against the “…brooding, personal” pieces of abstract expressionism, which Rauschenberg felt required “…time to feel sorry for yourself if your going to be a good abstract expressionist.” Emin’s work was itself created in a more post-modern moment where elements of the personal could again be portrayed.

Tracey Emin. “My Bed.” 1998. Box frame, mattress, linens, pillows and various objects. Overall display dimensions variable.

Robert Rauschenberg. “Bed.” 1955. Oil and pencil on pillow, quilt, and sheet on wood supports, 75 1/4 x 31 1/2 x 8" (191.1 x 80 x 20.3 cm)

Peer Reviewed Feedback

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4.2. Curate a Set of Images

Think about the themes we explored in this course: Places & Spaces, Art & Identity, Transforming Everyday Objects, and Art & Society. Select 5-10 images that you feel respond to or critique one of these themes. The images don’t need to be in a museum collection; they can be photographs from a magazine or the newspaper, for instance, or images you made. If you wish, you can collage the images or otherwise combine them to create a visual representation of your chosen theme, but it is also fine to simply share them as a list of images or links. Write a short paragraph (up to 150 words) that communicates which theme you responded to, why you selected the images and, if applicable, how you combined or arranged them.

ART & SOCIETY: I shot this photo series on October 22, 2021 to feature dozens of little signs cut into the shape of orange t-shirts which sprinkled the gardens of the Catholic STAR OF THE SEA PARISH in the city of White Rock, in British Columbia, Canada. Many of these tiny handmade signs had the number “215” marked on them in black ink, representing the number of remains of Indigenous children that had been found on the site of one former Residential School near the city of Kamloops, also in British Columbia. This display was one of the many acts of remembrance that have taken place this year in light of over a thousand remains being found at the sites of former schools across Canada. In the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Report, Canada’s residential schools were described as “…a systemic government sponsored attempt to destroy Aboriginal cultures and languages and to assimilate Aboriginal peoples so that they no longer existed as distinct peoples.”

Peer Reviewed Feedback

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Teaching with Themes

Part 3 - Peer Reviewed Assignment

February 21, 2023

Part One: Select Your Theme

1. Select a theme. You can choose a theme from the course or from MoMA Learning, or create your own. Remember that a good theme is a universal concept that can be explored on its own and is relevant to students’ lives. For example, Dada is an art movement, but Artistic Collaboration, which relates to Dada, could work as your theme.

2. Test it through the Theme Machine. If your theme was not successful, choose another theme to test.

3. When you identify a theme that is successful in the Theme Machine, describe your theme in one sentence.

Topic: Depression, anxiety, and loneliness

Theme Statement: A central theme explored in the fine art photographs by artists Francesca Woodman, Eva Charkiewicz, Jackie Dives, and Janelia Mould is that major depressive disorder can destroy a person’s ability to concentrate, enjoy life, feel connected with others and good about themselves, sleep, and work.

Part Two: Select Your Artworks

1. Choose 2-4 works of art that have not been discussed in this course to explore in your theme. We encourage you to select works of art from a local museum or gallery. You can also select images from MoMA’s website or another museum website. For each work, indicate the title, artist(s), date, and medium by including this information with your submission or linking to the page about the work on a museum’s website.

2. Write 100-200 words about how the works of art connect to your theme.

Francesca Woodman. “Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island.” Black & White Film Photograph. 1976.

Francesca Woodman’s work explores many themes related to anxiety, identity, depression, and loneliness, often through a surrealist black and white lens which helps to give her film photographs a timeless quality (surrealist art is marked by the intense unbelievable, fantastical, and irrational reality of a dream. Specifically, the Tate notes how: “It balances a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams. The movement's artists find magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional”).

In “Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island, 1976,” Woodman presents herself as a solitary figure in a sparse, forgotten and desperate space. The camera is also placed further back from Woodman, so there’s space between her and her viewers, as if the viewer is watching from afar, afraid to approach the subject. The light from the window behind her is so blown out that it’s impossible to place the space in any specific location, urban or rural. Anyone observing this scene could imagine it in their own town.

Wearing only shoes and a necklace, Woodman is sitting nude on an old chair, and nothing here hides the emotional state she is in. Her face is forlorn and despondent, she looks very much lost and alone in her solitude. The shadowy silhouette of a figure on the floor feels ghostly, as if it were representative of something that used to exist, perhaps before the depression set in.

Finally, it is important to note that this reading simply comes from a reading of the photograph itself. Biographical evidence of Woodman’s life notes that she appeared to be happy during her time studying at the Rhode Island School of Design. Later, after graduating from her program, Woodman would develop depression as she struggled to get her work shown, and she did ultimately take her own life. There are some who have tried to argue that this work foreshadowed and illustrated her personal struggles with depression, but there are also those who argue that this was not the case. Olga Hubard cautioned people to be mindful of the impulse to psychoanalyze the artist, and that seems particularly important to remember when studying the work of Woodman. An artist can create imagery that explores ideas about anxiety, depression, and mental illness without the artist having to have also suffered from those maladies.

Jackie Dives. “Untitled.” Colour Film Photograph. ~1990s.

As a teenager, artist and documentary photographer Jackie Dives shot a lot of photographs on film but didn’t end up developing a lot of those rolls until after a few decades had passed. It took a lot of strength for her to develop the rolls as she knew they were taken during a period in her life when she lived with anxiety and depression. But she also considered them as representing a major gap in her artistic development, one that she was curious about. About her struggles, Dives says: “So much of my experience has been pretending not to be depressed, instead of figuring out how to live with it” (Berman).

Formally, this image is an untitled colour photographic self-portrait shot on film and the content it contains also informs the ideas about a teenager hiding her struggles with anxiety and depression. This untitled 1990s image was digitally scanned from its film’s negative for inclusion in the Georgia Straight article. It was also printed for display at a one night only, four-hour long exhibition held on March 30, 2017, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The size of the print is like the size of photo one would get from a one-hour photo lab, ~5”x7.

Overall, this photo has an off-white monochromatic colour palette that serves to informs its overall tone. It helps to secure the image in a kind of dreamlike state – a moment captured in time and held there for viewers to see. David Kastan and Stephen Farthing, speaking in their book ON COLOUR, described how monochromatic black and white, as well as sepia images, can exist simply  as the colour of memories (201). Specifically, Kastan and Farthing explain how monochromatic greys can become a representation of, “Not of what we remember but the color of memory itself, which is always, at least in part, a kind of amnesia” (201). They further note how the greyness of black and white monochromatic photographs “…works to sequester their images securely in the past.” Here, Dives is wearing a simple, plain sweater that is either light tan, or even white in colour. The background of this photo is also very sparse, and contextually, this self-portrait of Dives is very minimalistic [an art movement that began in the 1960s as a rebellion against abstract expressionism and modernism. Minimalist art (whether it was in music, literature, or the visual arts), was characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity] in its feel than some of her other self-portraits. Ultimately, it’s safe to suggest that both the monochromatic tone and minimalist feel of this photograph lends to the emptiness one can feel when lost in the haze of despair.

Shot with a snapshot aesthetic, this photo also has a slight vignetting, which Adobe describes as: “…a darker border - sometimes as a blur or a shadow - at the periphery of photos. It can be an intentional effect to highlight certain aspects of the image or as a result of using the wrong settings, equipment or lens when taking a photo.” The vignette here enhances the overall ghostly feel to the image, and it removes it from being grounded in any one specific place and lends to the idea that the subject of the photo, whose facial expression conveys the emotion of someone barely surviving, exists in a kind of fog, both existentially and physically.

Unlike the work of Woodman, we can connect the ideas associated with anxiety and depression to the feelings Dives’s experienced as a teenager because Dives talks about this context in relation to the photographs she took during this time in her life. Dives has also discussed how she views photography as a kind of therapy and way of working through and exploring her experiences.

NOTE: This section on Dives primarily used work from a much larger piece I wrote in fall 2022 for a course at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, IDEA 2900, which can be found here.

Janelia Mould. “{ADORNMENT}.” Colour Photograph. 2018.

Janelia Mould is a fine art photographer who also explores the depression that impacted her life through her photographs. Like Woodman, Mould’s works are surreal and dreamlike, and often only show parts of her body. Speaking with My Modern Met, Mould notes: “I have purposefully left out the head and some limbs… I wanted to give a glimpse on how a person with depression might experience life, through creating a character that never feels fully complete” (Stewart).

Like Dives and Charkiewicz, Mould shoots her portraits in colour, but here her 2018 photo is grainy, and not tack sharp, mimicking the feel of an older roll of colour film, possibly shot in low light with a high ISO. It gives the portrait a hazy feel, as though the figure exists out of time, lost in the fog of despair. Here, it’s suggested that the unknown figure is also nude like Woodman, leaving the figure vulnerable to a viewer’s gaze.

On her belly is something that appears to be a tattoo, only here it’s an embroidery the figure is applying to herself in an almost nonchalant manner. There’s no blood, no suggestion that she is in pain as she threads the needle with red thread. This is telling as the pain associated with depression is also usually hidden below the surface of those who are suffering. It’s also interesting to see the figure do this to herself as some psychologists have linked the getting of tattoos to be representative of a person’s struggles with mental illness. One study conducted in July 2016 of 2,008 adults living in the United States found that “…people with tattoos were more likely to be diagnosed with mental health issues and to report sleep problems” (Wood). But by changing the tattoo to an embroidery, Mould is making a link to a tradition that is strongly feminine in its craft. It may also be leaning into the long held notion that more women suffer from depression than men, although there are psychologists who believe the difference lays in the possibility that women are more likely to report having depression than men.

Finally, Mould has called this piece “{ADORNMENT},” which refers to an embellishment or colourful decoration. A decorative distraction to keep people’s focus on something superficial. With each of Mould’s photos in this series, she quotes an author, in this case, Rachel Wolchin:

"I assure you, l'm not put together at all.

Nor am I broken.

I'm recovering -

finding the beautiful in the ugly and stitching it into my life."

The quote emphasizes a desire to overcome the depression, but it leaves one wondering if the approach is in any way sufficiently sustainable.

Eva Charkiewicz. “Everything Passes Away.” Colour Photograph. 2021.

Eva Charkiewicz is another fine art photographer who explores the depression she’s experienced through the self portraits she’s produced. Like Dives, Charkiewicz sees her creative process as being therapeutic, noting how: “I want to show you my world (my four walls) – my photographs. I became interested in photography after being diagnosed with clinical depression. Photography helped me and still helps me with my emotions” (The Perspective Point). 

Her 2021 photo, Everything passes away… is deceptively simple in its construction, and similar to the Dives photo above in its monochromatic use of colour. There’s an overall bluish grey tonal haze punctuated by her muted orange-red sweater. The red is reminiscent of a kind of life blood that’s being drained from the figure. And the blue grey haze feels like a wash of colour that’s been painted onto the image, one that also has a slight grainy effect that is evocative of the grain found in Mould’s photograph.

There are two figures visible, and the bodies of both figures face forward but there heads are turned towards each other, looking away from the viewer. All of these elements succinctly captures the isolating feeling that depression can have, leaving people turning inward, unaware of the world around them. That the figure on the right is more opaque than the one on the left suggests something about the individual is being lost due to the depression. It’s not that dissimilar to the impression of a figure on the floor of Woodman’s image.

Part Three: Summary (100-200 words)

1. What interested you about the theme you chose?

2. Why did you select these artworks?

3. Which age group or grade level did you have in mind when selecting this theme?

4. How would you introduce this theme to your students? What question could you ask or what activity could you develop to give them an entry point into the theme?

Ultimately, I was interested in the theme of depression as I’ve personally suffered from major depressive disorder for most of my life. And for better or for worse, it’s a theme I’ve also explored in my own fine art photography and non-fiction writing.

Seeing how other artists examine this malady through their own work also interests me, irregardless of whether or not they have personally suffered (to this end, I am reminded how Olga Hubard cautioned people to be mindful of the impulse to psychoanalyze the artist and their process, which is why I started with an examination of work by Francesca Woodman).

In terms of an age range for presenting this work to, I believe the work could be shown and discussed with those who are aged 13 and older. The work shown here by Woodman and Dives was done while they were teenagers, and the issues of depression, anxiety, and loneliness impacts many teenagers. It’s also known that making art can serve as a kind of therapy for working through difficult feelings and struggles.

To that end, I’d introduce the theme of depression by having students share moments when they’ve felt sad or depressed, or moments when they’ve seen family or friends feel that way. We’d then discuss how art could provide a way for expressing those feelings. Finally, I’d have students create an artwork that expresses the emotions they’ve felt or seen others feel, as discussed earlier in the session. Students could use whatever medium of expression they felt drawn to: collage, drawing, painting, photography, or even writing a poem or short story - fiction or memoir.

Works Cited…

Berman, Sarah. “Faded Snapshots from Teen Years Spent Lost and Depressed.” Vice, 19 Feb 2017.

The Perspective Point. “Eight artworks inspired by mental health problems.” The Guardian, 17 Jan 2018.

Stewart, Jessica. “Interview: Photographer Explores Own Depression with Surreal Self-Portraits.” My Modern Met, 10 Mar 2017.

Tate. “ART TERM - SURREALISM.”

Wood, Janice. “People With Tattoos More Likely to Also Have Mental Health Issues.” PsychCentral, 27 Jan 2019.

Peer Reviewed Feedback

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Unit Review

1. Teaching with the theme of Art & Society allows one to:

   1. Use a variety of primary sources;

   2. Address complex issues in an accessible way; and

   3. Make connections between historical and current events.

2. Teachers can help students build deeper relationships with works of art by facilitating a discussion of personal meaning within a larger sociocultural context.

3. Olga Hubard believes that the viewer’s experience comes first and information should be provided only if it does not disrupt the free flow of ideas.

4. Examples of productive and/or useful information, according to Hubard include:

   1. Student interpretations; and

   2. Cultural context and meaning;

   3. Descriptions of artworks.

5. Olga Hubard equates gathering information to a fully stocked pantry from which you select only what you need for a specific recipe.

6. Olga Hubard cautions us to be mindful of the impulse to psychoanalyze the artist and his process.

7. Migration Series is based on research Jacob Lawrence conducted at the 135th Street Library in Harlem.

8. To make Migration Series, Jacob Lawrence use a consistent set of paint colours to make the 60 panels, feel like a unit, like one work.

9. The following is true about Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother:

   1. It was taken during the great depression in America; and

   2. The closeness of Lange’s framing helps to give the image its power.

10. Martha Rosler combined the following to create the series, House Beautiful:

    1. Images of the conflict in Vietnam; and

    2. Advertisements from magazines that were popular at the time.

11. Felix Gonzales-Torres’s Untitled (Perfect Lovers) was created in a time where the HIV/AIDS epidemic was greatly affecting American society.

12. Through the imagery in Candied, Shahzia Sikander implies a story but does not provide a specific narrative.

13. Michael Rakowitz’s paraSITE homeless shelters are affordable, but not because they are mass produced.

14. Together with the occupant, Michael Rakowitz develops custom made plans for his paraSITE homeless shelters, builds them, and distributes them to the occupant.

15. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner responded to or represented the following in Street, Dresden:

    1. The industrial, technological, and intellectual innovations of modernity;

    2. The frenetic piece of contemporary life; and

    3. The feelings of isolation and loneliness that can exist even when in the midst of a crowd of people.

16. Kerry James Marshall’s central figure in Untitled (policeman) complicates the issue of police shootings in America by how:

    1. He stands as a reminder that many Black people serve in the police force; and

    2. He is black.

17. Carolyn Lancher argues that Jasper John’s Flag collapses the difference between reality and illusion.

18. Steven Pinker argues that because we are primates and thereby largely visual beings, translating complex relationships – including the various costs of over-imprisonment illustrated in the Million Dollar Blocks project - individual formats helps us to understand them.

Jacob Lawrence. Migration Series. 1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 60 panels, dimensions vary.

Dorothea Lange. Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California. 1936. Gelatin silver print, 11 1/8 x 8 9/16" (28.3 x 21.8 cm).

Martha Rosler. Cleaning the Drapes from the series House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home. c. 1967–72. Pigmented inkjet print (photomontage), printed 2011, 17 5/16 x 23 3/4" (44 x 60.3 cm).

Felix Gonzalez-Torres. "Untitled" (Perfect Lovers). 1991. Clocks, paint on wall, overall 14 x 28 x 2 3/4" (35.6 x 71.2 x 7 cm).

Shahzia Sikander. Candied. 2003. Ink, colored ink, and gouache on twenty pieces of prepared paper, Each: 15 x 11" (38.1 x 27.9 cm).

Michael Rakowitz. paraSITE homeless shelter. 1997. Polyethylene, 42" x 36" x 11' (107 x 91.5 x 335 cm).

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Street, Dresden. 1908 (reworked 1919; dated on painting 1907). Oil on canvas, 59 1/4" x 6' 6 7/8" (150.5 x 200.4 cm).

Kerry James Marshall. Untitled (policeman). 2015. Synthetic polymer paint on PVC panel with plexi frame, 60 x 60" (152.4 × 152.4 cm).

Jasper Johns. Flag. 1955. Encaustic, oil, and collage on fabric mounted on plywood, three panels, 42 1/4 x 60 5/8" (107.3 x 153.8 cm).

- END OF WEEK 05 -

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Course Certificates of Completion

- END OF COURSE 01 -

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COURSE 01, WEEK 04 - Transforming Everyday Objects

Part 1 - Overview

Discover how artists use everyday objects to challenge assumptions about what constitutes art and how it should be made. Explore a variety of artistic and design choices, and the creative acts of inventing and transforming everyday objects.

Many artists use everyday objects—like beds, bicycle wheels, and teacups—to challenge assumptions about what constitutes art and how it should be made. Designers develop useful objects considering form, function, and, often, beauty. This theme will introduce you to ideas about artistic and design choices, and the creative acts of inventing and transforming everyday objects. The introduction video is the place to begin. It focuses on three works of art—Marcel Duchamp’s first “readymade”; a confounding and controversial fur-covered teacup by Meret Oppenheim; and Robert Rauschenberg’s paint-covered bed—through which you will explore this theme. The slideshow expands upon these artworks and features many more works of art and design, ranging from El Anatsui’s sumptuous, tapestry-like wall sculptures made entirely of liquor bottle caps and seals to a 3-D printed dress designed by Jessica Rosenkrantz and Jesse Louis-Rosenberg.

Learning Objectives

• Discover how artists use everyday objects to challenge assumptions about what constitutes art and how it should be made.

• Analyze a variety of artistic and design choices, and the creative acts of inventing and transforming everyday objects.

• Propose your own readymades from objects in your environment.

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3.2. Transforming Everyday Objects

“As an artist, I think that I should work with processes and media that are immediately around me.” —El Anatsui

Select three objects from your surrounding environment to combine and designate as a readymade. Brainstorm a title for your readymade. Does the title reflect the way these everyday objects are used or how they change when combined with other objects? Either describe or take a photograph of your readymade and post it here with its title. Then, respond to another learner’s post that resonates with or interests you.

“Healthcare.”

February 9, 2021

I am in isolation at the Peace Arch Hospital after having a stroke on January 31, 2023 and somehow contracting chickenpox. There isn’t much in the room I’m in, although there is a small screw in the wall on which a clock or bulletin board was likely hung at one time. This lonely screw became the hook upon which I hung up to three found objects to create what Robert Rauschenberg termed a readymade combine.

After you’ve gone through this process, describe how would you introduce this theme to your students. What question could you ask or what activity could you develop to give them an entry point into the theme?

It would be interesting to discuss the functionality of things we encounter on a daily basis. In what ways could students envision new uses for these items? How does placing an object on a museum wall change the item’s purpose and appearance? If time permitted, students could also modify an object by painting and drawing on it, disassembling it and using the parts in a new artwork, or using it in a mixed media work.

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3.4. Weekly Reflection

December 24, 2020

Reflect on what you learned this week.

I love how artists like Marcel Duchamp used found objects and placed them in a gallery setting to question and challenge what had traditionally been viewed as art. This was an important turning point in the world of art as it began to challenge the ideas and concepts that lay behind art up to that point. No longer was the carved marble or bronze cast figure the end result in sculpture... now, the chisel used to create those sculptures could also stand as an artwork in its own right.

What did you learn that was new or surprising?

I was amazed at how many different artists contributed to the development of the idea of transforming everyday objects. Both male and female artists brought unique perspectives to the objects. Some objects were simply presented as is, such as Duchamp’s FOUNTAIN. Others were altered slightly, such as Duchamp’s BICYCLE WHEEL, which is presented as is but attached to a stool. Doing this, took an object of mobility and froze it, as it was now stuck, upside down, unable to move forward as it might otherwise do as part of a unicycle or bicycle. Artists like Méret Oppenheim altered her found objects even more, as seen with LE DEJEUNER EN FOURRURE, where the objects were completely covered in fur, thereby completely altering the function of the objects.

Did any of the artworks resonate with you?

Learning about the thought process behind Rauschenberg’s work, BED, was fascinating. How he ended up using the quilt as an art surface simply because he had nothing else to paint on. And then, only when he wasn’t happy with how it was going, did he add the pillow. It highlights how he was able to work from an experimental and improvisational mindset which is so important to cultivate as an artist.

Did your perspective on any of the artworks change by looking at them through this week’s theme?

My perspectives on the artworks weren’t altered greatly as I am familiar with concepts like the readymade or more contemporary offshoots like works created under Arte Povera. My reverence for them deepened though and there were works presented that I wasn’t familiar with before such as Mike Keeley, as well as Rosencrantz & Rosenberg.

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Review…

1. Teaching with the Transforming Everyday Objects theme:

   1. Allows teachers to explore both works of art and design objects; and

   2. Provides entry points for exploring artists’ and designer’ materials and techniques.

2. If you were to have a conversation about objects, some topics to discuss would include:

   1. The function of the object;

   2. How the object was made; and

   3. Who the object was made for.

3. The following are examples of topics you can talk about with your students within the Transforming Everyday Objects theme:

   1. Materials and techniques; and

   2. Form vs function.

4. According to John Hennigar Shuh, the following statements are true about object based learning:

   1. It helps students develop critical thinking skills; and

   2. Since objects are not age-specific, object-based learning engages students at all levels.

5. John Hennigar Shu does not recommend that if you are new to object-based teaching, you should start with an object that your students are not familiar with.

6. After completing a successful line of fur-covered jewelry, Meret Oppenheim developed a line of fur-covered dinnerware for sale in local Parisian boutiques.

7. Robert Rauschenberg stated that he was operating in the gap between Art and Life by how:

   1. He combines elements of painting and sculpture; and

   2. His use of found objects as well as art materials.

8. Louise Nevelson did not use lumber from her local hardware store in her sculpture, Sky Cathedral.

9. Jessica Rosenkrantz and Jesse Louis-Rosenberg’s Kinematics Dress was not designed as a mass-produced item that anyone could wear.

10. Mike Kelley used hand-sewn, handmade objects intended to be given away in order to present a contrast to the look of brand new, mass-manufactured objects.

11. The first ballpoint pen was not invented by the French company, Bic.

12. Tom Wesselmann incorporated a framed reproduction of a Picasso painting, a refrigerator door, as well as clippings from advertisements into his mixed media painting, Still Life #30.

13. Tomas Gabzdil Libertíny did not use a prototyping machine to create his series of Honeycomb Vases.

14. In assessing useful objects to add to the museum’s collection, MOMA curators look at form, beauty, and function.

15. Betye Saar once said she considered windows to represent a means of travelling from one level of consciousness to another.

16. Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel is designated an “assisted readymade” rather than simply a “readymade” because Duchamp not only chose the eponymous object but also altered it by mounting it upside down on a stool.

Meret Oppenheim. Object. 1936. Fur-covered cup, saucer, and spoon; cup 4 3/8" (10.9 cm) diam.; saucer 9 3/8" (23.7 cm) diam.; spoon 8" (20.2 cm) long, overall height 2 7/8" (7.3 cm).

Robert Rauschenberg. Bed. 1955. Oil and pencil on pillow, quilt, and sheet on wood supports, 6' 3 1/4" x 31 1/2" x 8" (191.1 x 80 x 20.3 cm).

Louise Nevelson. Sky Cathedral. 1958. Painted wood, 11' 3 1/2" x 10' 1/4" x 18" (343.9 x 305.4 x 45.7 cm).

Jessica Rosenkrantz, Jesse Louis-Rosenberg. Kinematics Dress. 2013. Laser-sintered nylon, 44 x 37 x 2" (111.8 x 94 x 5.1 cm) irreg.

Mike Kelley. Untitled. 1990. Found afghans and stuffed dolls, 6" x 20' 5" x 52" (15.2 x 622.3 x 132.1 cm).

Décolletage Plastique Design Team. Bic Cristal Ballpoint pen. 1950. Polystyrene, polypropylene, and tungsten carbide, 5 7/8 x 1/2" (14.9 x 1.3 cm).

Tom Wesselmann. Still Life #30. 1963. Oil, enamel, and synthetic polymer paint on composition board with collage of printed advertisements, plastic flowers, refrigerator door, plastic replicas of 7-Up bottles, glazed and framed color reproduction, and stamped metal, 48 1/2 x 66 x 4" (122 x 167.5 x 10 cm).

Tomáš Gabzdil Libertíny. The Honeycomb Vase “Made by Bees” (Prototype). 2006. Beeswax, 9 x 5 1/2 x 5 1/2" (22.9 x 14 x 14 cm).

Marcel Duchamp. Bicycle Wheel. 1951 (third version, after lost original of 1913). Metal wheel mounted on painted wood stool, 51 x 25 x 16 1/2" (129.5 x 63.5 x 41.9 cm).

- END OF WEEK 04 -

COURSE 01, WEEK 03 - Art & Identity

Part 1 - Overview

1.1. Introduction to Art & Identity

See how artists create works of art to express, explore, and question identity.

Learning Objectives

• Discover how artists create works of art to express, explore, and question identity.

• Analyze how artists critique cultural constructs of identity through explorations of media, advertising, consumer culture, and history.

• Create or find an image or artwork that explores an aspect of your identity.

Identity is the way we perceive and express ourselves. Factors and conditions that an individual is born with—such as ethnic heritage, sex, or one’s body—often play a role in defining one’s identity. However, many aspects of a person’s identity change throughout their life. People’s experiences can alter how they see themselves or are perceived by others. Conversely, their identities also influence the decisions they make: Individuals choose their friends, adopt certain fashions, and align themselves with political beliefs based on their identities.

1.2. Art & Identity

The introductory video to this topic is on the Museum of Modern Art’s YouTube Channel…

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Part 3 - Read and Review

3.3. Art & Identity Visual & Written Response

Think about various aspects of your own identity. Create or find an image that represents one of more of these aspects. Post this image here. Explain what the image is, why you selected it, and what it tells us about you. Then, respond to another learner’s post that resonates with or interests you.

Aspects of my Own Identity...

In thinking about aspects of my own identity, I decided to draw inspiration from artist Glenn Ligon's project wherein he asked his friends to imagine he was missing and to provide descriptions that would help people find him. To this end, I asked a few dozen friends (and received responses from ten of them) the following questions: (1) What are three aspects of my IDENTITY that come to mind when you think of me? (2) What is the one aspect of my PERSONALITY that comes to mind for you, before anything else? and (3) How would you describe me if I went missing and you had to create my missing poster?

In terms of questions one and two, I found the answers grouped into three pools as follows: (1) people described me using words such as: kind, friendly (x2), compassionate (x2), considerate, gregarious, hospitable, honest, very giving, helpful and caring, warmhearted, and sociable; (2) funny (x7),  and cheeky; as well as (3) artistic (x3), creative, and talented. For question three, there was an interesting variety of responses where two people simply said they'd use a photo of me and one referenced my humour, stating how they'd "...go to your Facebook profile and give them (your) profile picture of Burt Reynolds - a picture says a thousand words." Others used more concrete language to describe my physical appearance, using words such as: "nearly 6ft, blond, larger man (not "meaty");" "tall, dark hair, blue eyes, good looking guy;" "heavy set man with reddish hair that is thinning (with) a beard, also wears glasses;" and "robust, loud and plump, waddles." One friend was particularly kind, saying: "First of all, I pray that you never go missing bitch, you matter. But if I have to talk about when you are not around, I will say I miss the person, I wish he was gay. For your missing poster, I gonna say: 'Wanted, that guy who could easily steal my heart but he ignored me all the time, but still I can't imagine my boring life without him. So, if you see this person wishing Merry Christmas to strangers in the summer, please let me know. I need his stupidness to balance my life."

Photo Response

I shot this image, a "selfie" of sorts, on January 1, 2020. In it, I am wrapping up and putting away decorations that had adorned the Christmas tree at my Mother's house. I shot about a dozen different angles as best I could, without looking at the results of each shot at the time. In downloading and looking at the shots today, I ultimately chose this one, where I'm slightly blurred due to the camera focusing on the table and some of the Christmas decorations that are in the foreground, giving the overall composition a shallow depth of field. My intention was to capture the care and attention to detail I put into cautiously packing away my Mother's delicate decorations. I like how I'm blurred because I don't particularly care for taking selfies, and the focus on the decorations helps highlight the importance they have for me in that specific moment. The photo doesn't really pull any of the threads related to my sense of humour but could tease at my creative interests and the kindness I try to show my Mom by helping her with a variety of things. I did not edit, filter, augment or otherwise enhance the photo, nor have I shared it to social media.

After you’ve gone through this process, describe how would you introduce this theme to your students. What question could you ask or what activity could you develop to give them an entry point into the theme?

On introducing the theme of Art & Identity I’d ask students to individually brainstorm how others might answer the following questions when thinking about them: (1) What are three aspects of my IDENTITY that come to mind when you think of me? (2) What is the one aspect of my PERSONALITY that comes to mind for you, before anything else? and (3) How would you describe me if I went missing and you had to create my missing poster? I’d then have the students discuss in groups how they perceive one another by answering the same questions. I’d then have students shoot selfies of themselves, and using the answers they gathered from their own brainstorming and sharing, make an image that places the descriptors onto their selfies in creative ways. Students would then share their images and discuss how they perceived themselves were similar to or different from what their friends had to say.

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3.5. Weekly Reflection

Reflect on what you learned this week. What did you learn that was new or surprising?

Art that focuses on identity can either be an exploration of one’s own identity (as done in self portraits by such artists as Frida Kahlo, Francesca Woodman as well as Cindy Sherman or in the exploration of self as seen in On Kawara); or an exploration of the identity of other individuals (as seen by the portrayals of Marilyn Monroe).

These explorations can be deeply resonant, made with careful thought or they can be made on a whim with an eye towards say, some kind of snapshot aesthetic.

Furthermore, these explorations can focus on the human figure, or they can focus on objects that reflect on some aspect of an individual’s identity (as seen in the portrayals of Van Gogh’s and Matisse’s art studios), or they can focus on objects that inform some kind of collective identity (as seen by the work of Ellen Gallagher).

Did any of the artworks resonate with you?

Both Frida Kahlo’s and Andy Warhol’s work resonated with me as both are representations of a kind of rebirth or renewal. Kahlo’s self portrait illustrated her break with her past as she pushed towards standing on her own as an independent artist; and Warhol’s portrait tackled how Monroe was being reborn after death in terms of how she was remembered and represented in society through the pop culture lens of that time.

Did your perspective on any of the artworks change by looking at them through this week’s theme?

I was familiar with many of these works but wasn’t familiar with work by artists such as Mona Hatoum and On Kawara, who used objects such as postcards to form the basis of his own portrayal of himself. I’ve had an understanding that objects can represent aspects of identity, as you can do this often through visual imagery in creative writing - but I’d forgotten how this can so easily transfer over to the creation of art. With my own creative writing I’ve learned how vivid and rich descriptions about an individual’s bedroom can bring to light fascinating insights into who that individual is. And even though I wasn’t fully conscious of it I know I’ve done this with my own artwork, in a series of joiner photographs that explore my own life and the objects in my own rooms as well as how I am placed throughout those spaces (this series I’ve called “a simple slight of essence”). But both Hatoum and Kawara did this and for me that made their work stand out and resonate for me as being a way of moving beyond pure portraiture.

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Review…

1. Identity is about who we are; a topic that is relevant to students; and about how we see ourselves in the world.

2. In Untitled (Runaways), Glenn Ligon demonstrated that identity can be influenced by other people’s perceptions of you; and that it can be influenced by the past.

3. In Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair, Frida Khalo used the following elements to convey her separation from her husband, artist Diego Rivera:

   1. Lyrics from a Mexican folk song;

   2. Cropped hair; and

   3. The wearing of a dark, oversized suit resembling the ones that Rivera wore.

4. Examples of sub-themes which explore the theme of identity include how artists represent aspects of the self; as well as individual vs group identity.

5. Andy Warhol based Gold Marilyn Monroe on a publicity photograph to highlight the difference between how the public sees celebrities and who they really are.

6. I and the Village is based on Marc Chagall‘s memories of growing up in a Hasidic Jewish village in Belarus.

7. Some benefits of teaching with the theme of identity include: engaging in meaningful conversations with students; allowing students to make personal connections to artworks; and allowing students to consider other people’s perspectives.

8. John Dewey believed that museums are an important part of society and that they: should be an integral part of education; should be connected with everyday life activities; and provide a space where curiosity and imagination are encouraged.

9. John Dewey argued that learning should be a part of a student’s lives both in and out of the classroom.

10. A primary element Henri Matisse uses in The Red Studio to represent his identity is depictions of his own works of art.

11. The chairs in which Almerisa sits may be seen as a metaphor for Almerisa’s transformation from an immigrant child to an adult Dutch citizen in Rineke Dijkstra’s portrait series.

12. Free, White and 21 refers to a character in Howardena Pindell’s video who represents the racism the artist experienced coming of age as a black woman in America.

13. Ellen Gallagher uses vintage advertisements aimed at black audiences in Deluxe in order to critique their messages about identity and self-improvement including how:

    1. You can have a better career by enrolling in nursing school;

    2. Skin lightening cream leads to improved complexion; and

    3. Wigs can effectively recast your appearance.

14. The title of Kara Walker’s 40 Acres of Mules refers to the undelivered promise given to emancipated slaves.

15. In Bruce Nauman’s Art Make-up, he dips his fingers into a small dish of makeup and smears his face and body with the thick pigment until he is covered, beginning with white makeup, he moves on to pink, green, and black, layering each new color on top of the previous ones.

16. On Kawara’s series, I Got Up… shares the following consistently:

    1. Each postcard is stamped;

    2. He used tourist postcards; and

    3. He would send these postcards to various friends, family members, collectors, and colleagues.

Glenn Ligon. Untitled, from Runaways. 1993. One from a portfolio of 10 lithographs, composition (irreg.): 12 9/16 x 8 15/16" (31.9 x 22.7 cm); sheet: 16 x 12" (40.7 x 30.5 cm).

Frida Kahlo. Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair. 1940. Oil on canvas, 15 3/4 x 11" (40 x 27.9 cm).

Andy Warhol. Gold Marilyn. 1962. Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 6' 11 1/4" x 57" (211.4 x 144.7 cm).

Marc Chagall. I and the Village. 1911. Oil on canvas, 6' 3 5/8" x 59 5/8" (192.1 x 151.4 cm).

Henri Matisse. The Red Studio. 1911. Oil on canvas, 71 1/4" x 7' 2 1/4" (181 x 219.1 cm).

Rineke Dijkstra. Almerisa series. 1994–2008. Chromogenic color print, 13 3/4 x 11" (35 x 28 cm).

Howardena Pindell. Free, White and 21. 1980. Video (color, sound), 12:15 min.

Ellen Gallagher. DeLuxe. 2004–05. Portfolio of 60 photogravure, etching, aquatint, and drypoints with lithography, screenprint, embossing, tattoo-machine engraving, laser cutting, and chine collé; and additions of plasticine, paper collage, enamel, varnish, gouache, pencil, oil, polymer, watercolor, pomade, velvet, glitter, crystals, foil paper, gold leaf, toy eyeballs, and imitation ice cubes, overall: 84 x 167" (213.4 x 424.2 cm); each: 13 x 10 1/2" (33 x 26.7 cm).

Kara Walker. 40 Acres of Mules. 2015. Charcoal on three sheets of paper. (.a): 104 × 72" (264.2 × 182.9 cm); (.b): 103 × 72" (261.6 × 182.9 cm); (.c): 105 × 72" (266.7 × 182.9 cm).

Bruce Nauman. Art Make-Up: no. 1 White, No. 2 Pink, No. 3 Green, No. 4 Black. 1967–68. 16mm film transferred to video (color, sound), 40 min.

On Kawara. I Got Up…. 1977. Ink and stamps on postcards, each postcard 4 x 5 7/8" (10.2 x 15 cm), each frame 53 3/4 x 11 1/4 x 1 3/4" (136.5 x 28.6 x 4.4 cm).

- END OF WEEK 03 -

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COURSE 01, WEEK 02 - Places & Spaces

Part 1 - Overview

1.1. Introduction to Places & Spaces

Discover some of the ways that artists represent place and take inspiration from their environment.

In this module, you will discover some of the different ways that artists represent place and use materials from their environment. This is an approachable theme, because it covers sights and structures that will be familiar to many. The introduction video is the place to begin. It focuses on three works of art—a star-filled landscape by Vincent van Gogh; a vision of New York City filtered through the abstraction of Piet Mondrian; and Gordon Matta-Clark’s sculpture made from pieces of a demolished home—through which you will explore this theme. The slideshow expands upon these artworks and features many more, ranging from Claude Monet’s immersive paintings of the water lilies in his beloved garden pond to a decades-long architectural project by Louis I. Kahn, which unfolded in the complex political environment of postcolonial Bangladesh.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze how artists convey mood, emotions, and memories through the depiction of place.

• Discover how artists draw attention to and create new perspectives on overlooked places or the objects and structures within them.

• Create or find an image or artwork that expresses your experience of a particular place.

• Discover some of the many ways artists represent place and take inspiration from their environment.

1.2. Places & Spaces

The introductory video to this topic is on the Museum of Modern Art’s YouTube Channel…

Artifact 1 - Video: MOMA. “How artists capture environments.” YouTube, 25 Sept 2015.

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Part 2 - Look & Learn

Not all the videos from this course are on the Museum of Modern Art’s YouTube Channel, but I’ve tried to find a couple of videos online that relate to each artwork studied in the Coursera workshop, MODERN ART & IDEAS.

2.2. Vincent van Gogh. The Starry Night. 1889

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Part 3 - Read & Review

3.3. Places & Spaces - Discussion Prompt

Think about a place you’ve visited in the past few weeks that had a strong effect on you. Consider the characteristics of the place that made it distinct, including the mood, environment, people who were around or with you, and your reason for being there. Create or find an image that expresses your experience of that place. Post the image here and explain your choice. Then, respond to another learner’s post that resonates with or interests you.

In the late afternoon of December 12, 2019, I was sitting in the parking lot of a local nursery I had just visited. Each fall, much of the inside and outside of this nursery gets transformed into a venue selling Christmas decorations as well as an assortment of artificial and real Christmas trees. It had rained heavily that afternoon, as it is oft to do in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia. The downpour had resulted in part of the nursery's parking lot to flood.

I remember being both tired and distraught as I hadn't been able to find a nice, new and large artificial tree to replace the old one my Mother and I had decided had finally bit the biscuit as it was now too worn out to be used, with half of it's lights not working and my attempt at replacing the old lights with new ones having failed as none of the new lights I had tried looked good on the old tree. As such, we agreed it was time to let it go, even though I think that is a waste in and of itself - that this tree would now end up in a landfill. It seems oddly representative of the waste created by our Western, consumer driven society, where things have to look just right. This was actually the sixth place I had been to that day, and none of the six stores had anything that didn't look like anything other than a plastic version of a real majestic tree. I think it was even more frustrating as I know there have been better trees made and sold in the past, as I had the remains of one strewn about my Mom's living room.

As I sat defeated in my car, I remember the sky was overcast. It was dusk and the dark cloudy sky had taken on a blackish-bluish-grey tone that felt a bit ominous to me. I was parked on the edge of the flooded area, and on one else had dared to try and park in the ankle high water, so there was a large distance between my car and the vehicle on the other side of the flooded area. I think I recall only one couple running across the parking lot to get to their car, during the ten minutes or so that I sat alone in my car. I felt alone even though there was a constant stream of cars on the highway to my right whizzing past me at speeds of 80 kmh and higher. The lights of those cars at dusk felt like they were blurred and obscured from the raindrops on my windshield. They felt surreal and foggy, emphasizing the banality and emptiness I was feeling in that moment. To my right, in the periphery of my eye I remember seeing the white Christmas lights hung on the outside of the nursery, in bushes and trees that lined the storefront and it felt like they were mocking me a bit.

Ultimately it wasn't a place that stood out because it was any place special. But what made it stood out was the feelings it stirred in me. Eventually, the banality and loneliness of the place prompted me to take a few photos as I sat their, which is something I'm apt to do being an artist.

Question from ART & IDEAS: TEACHING WITH THEMES - After you’ve gone through this process, describe how would you introduce this theme to your students. What question could you ask or what activity could you develop to give them an entry point into the theme?

I would introduce this theme to students by leading a discussion about places that are important and memorable to them. The places could be monumental, or they could be small and intimate, such as a room in their house. An activity that could be done in concert with this discussion could be to take ten minutes to free write about that space and it’s memories, perhaps through the use of five sensory imagery. Then, I’d ask the students to make a visual representation of the space through drawing, painting, or collage - one that brings to life some aspect of what they discussed and wrote.

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Review…

1. Students can easily relate to the Places & Spaces theme because they interact with their environment daily.

2. Some entry points into the Places & Spaces theme include:

   1. Visual elements like line, colour, shape, texture, pattern, and form;

   2. Encouraging students to imagine themselves in the places depicted; and

   3. Exploring how environments change over time.

3. Teaching with the Places & Spaces theme ignites curiosity and wonder in students.

4. Modern educational theory stresses the importance of active participation in learning.

5. According to George Heine, meaning making:

   1. Is independent of any particular educational theory;

   2. Is a consequence of how the human neurological system develops and interacts with its environment; and

   3. Happens gradually from an early age, as we gain experiences in the world.

6. Constructive learning theory argues that a visitor’s prior knowledge has an impact on their learning, engagement, and experience at museums.

7. Bernd and Hilla Becher displayed their photographs in grids to reveal to viewers the enormous variety among the industrial architecture they photographed, as well as the subtle differences within each architectural category.

8. The Starry Night is partly based on Vincent Van Gogh’s direct observations of the landscape in Saint-Rémy, in the south of France.

9. In painting The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali drew inspiration from the following sources:

   1. His subconscious;

   2. His dreams; and

   3. His memories of the Catalonian coastline.

10. In his triptych, Water Lilies, Monet aimed to give the viewer the sensation of being in the place he depicted by:

    1. Using large scale canvases;

    2. Depicting reflections of the sky on water; and

    3. Displaying the triptych on curved walls.

11. Hippolyte Blancard photographed the Eiffel Tower to capture the making of a symbol of a rapidly changing city.

12. Louis I Kahn’s Sher-e Bangla Nagar was commissioned by the government of Pakistan.

13. Some have interpreted the crisscrossing lines in Norman Lewis’s City Night as laundry lines, as well as power lines.

14. In Home is a Foreign Place, Zarina uses a musical score to illustrate the idea of disappearing language.

15. In Three Gorges Dam Migration, Yun-Fei Ji subverted the typically serene images of Classical Chinese landscape painting by inserting realistic renderings of the hardship that resulted from dam construction.

16. Rachel Whitehead used a cast of a water tower to make Water Tower.

17. Anaarchitecture was what Gordon Matta-Clark called the practice through which he drew attention to non-functional or overlooked buildings, architectural sites, and spaces.

Bernd Becher and Hilla Becher. Water Towers. 1988. Gelatin silver prints, 67 11/16 x 55 1/8" (172 x 140 cm).

Vincent van Gogh. The Starry Night. 1889. Oil on canvas, 29 x 36 1/14" (73.7 x 92.1 cm).

Salvador Dalí. The Persistence of Memory. 1931. Oil on canvas, 9 1/2 x 13" (24.1 x 33 cm).

Claude Monet. Water Lilies. 1914–26. Oil on canvas, three panels, Each 6' 3/4" x 41' 10 3/8" (200 x 1276 cm).

Hippolyte Blancard. Untitled. 1889. Platinum print, 8 15/16 x 6 1/8" (22.7 x 15.6 cm).

Louis I. Kahn. Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh (Study for National Assembly Building). 1962–83. Cardboard, 14 1/2 x 89 x 49" (36.8 x 226.1 x 124.5 cm.

Norman Lewis. City Night. 1949. Oil on wood, 24 x 18" (61 x 45.7 cm)

Zarina. Home is a Foreign Place. 1999. Portfolio of 36 woodcuts with letterpress additions, mounted on paper, composition (each): 8 x 6" (20.3 x 15.2 cm); sheet (each): 16 x 13" (40.7 x 33 cm).

Yun-Fei Ji. Three Gorges Dam Migration. 2009. Woodcut scroll, composition (image): 13 3/8 x 120 11/16" (34 x 306.5 cm); sheet (full sheet): 17 5/16 x 337 3/16" (44 x 856.5 cm).

Rachel Whiteread. Water Tower. 1998. Translucent resin and painted steel, 12' 2" (370.8 cm) x 9' (274.3 cm) diam.

Gordon Matta-Clark. Bingo. 1974. Building fragments: painted wood, metal, plaster, and glass, three sections, overall 69" x 25' 7" x 10" (175.3 x 779.8 x 25.4 cm).

- END OF WEEK 02 -

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COURSE 01, WEEK 01 - Introduction to Modern Art & Ideas

This course, MODERN ART & IDEAS, was one of the first courses I ever enrolled in through Coursera. This blog will document the work I did in this class.

Artists respond to and participate in the intellectual, social, and cultural contexts of their time. By studying modern and contemporary art we create a dialogue between the established and the experimental, the past and the present, making connections that bring a greater sense of depth and understanding of the issues and ideas that shape our world.

Be introduced to some of the overall benefits of studying modern and contemporary art through accessible and relevant themes.

Week 01 Learning Objectives

• Discover how learning about modern art through universal themes can create connections between art and your personal experience and prior knowledge

• Analyze how, beginning in the late-19th-century, artists broke with tradition to create art for the modern age.

Part 1 - Introduction to the Course

1.2. Introduction to Modern Art & Ideas

The introductory video to the course is available on YouTube…

Artifact 1 - MOMA. Introduction to Modern Art & Ideas. YouTube, 25 Sept 2015.

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Part 2 - Participate

2.1. Share Your Nationality

Hello learners! One of your fellow colleagues was interested in the countries represented in this course. I myself would like to know this valuable information. Therefore say where you are from and one or two things about your country so we can all learn something new..... I will start.

I am from the twin isle Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, southern Caribbean islands, about 6 miles from Venezuela; the home of calypso, steel pan(drums) and limbo.

Currently I live in South Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. It’s about an hour southeast of downtown Vancouver, Canada. I was born in Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada. One Vancouver artist I admire, is Douglas Coupland - many of his works delve into Canadians and their relationship with space and history.

Artifact 2 - Photo: Steven H. Lee. “Father’s Day, 2004.”

I was adopted by a Korean Canadian medical doctor, Dr Han Choo Lee (See Artifact 2), and his Caucasian Canadian wife, Mrs Beverly Jean Lee (see Artifact 3), before I was even born. Born Hanju Lee, my Dad grew up in Korea under a brutal Japanese occupation. He immigrated to Canada in 1952 to escape the ravages of the Korean War. My Dad had left behind family on both sides, but many were stuck in his childhood village which was in what became the North. It would take almost forty years before he found out what happened to them. It took that long just to get back in touch with them. The farm he grew up on had been turned into a military airbase by the North Korean government. My dad was solitary, and I have no doubt it was because of the isolation, and the lack of belonging that my Dad felt here. I know growing up, he did battle some of his demons by drinking Whisky late at night, getting drunk, and sometimes, getting terribly angry.

He stayed at the YMCA on Burrard Street in Vancouver for the first few months after he arrived. Immigration officials messed up his name, recording it as Han Choo Lee, and not Hanju Lee. He had been trained as a medical doctor and surgeon in Korea. But he couldn’t just setup practice upon arrival, which is representative of employment barriers immigrants often face. He ended up doing more training in Edmonton, and he had to rewrite many of the exams one takes to practice medicine. I don’`t know for certain, but I swear I heard he even had to write those exams in German. I can’t imagine the difficulty of translating medical terminology from Korean to English to German and back. It definitely seems like it was another huge barrier he had to overcome.

While living in Alberta, the first job related to his profession that he was able to get was a job no one really wanted – he would be flown into different northern communities across Canada where residents didn’t have their own health care facilities or doctors. This is often the case with immigrants, in that they have to take whatever work they can get. At this time, my Dad did marry a German woman, but came home one time to find her in bed with another man.

As such, he moved back to Vancouver, where he married again briefly. He setup his own medical practice but faced prejudice as he was often told by white doctors to go back home, as no Korean could ever have a successful medical practice in Canada. Unfortunately, his second marriage didn’t last, and he moved to Williams Lake, the city of my birth, where he met my Mom – and they would be together over 40 years until his death at the age of 80, in 2004. As I mentioned Mom is a Caucasian Canadian, and their mixed race marriage was looked down upon by even members of their own families, leaving them somewhat isolated in Williams Lake.

Artifact 3 - Photo: Steven H. Lee. “Mom with Kikko.”

Artifact 4 - Photo. “Chief ‘Sugar Cane’ Will’ium.” 1879.

There, his practice was largely built upon patients from the local First Nations communities, as well as from other persons of colour who weren’t comfortable seeing the town’s white doctors, due to prejudice, racism and cultural differences. These groups were seen and treated as being intrinsically different by the majority white population in Canada.

Artifact 5 - Photo. “William Pinchbeck.” 1880.

Biologically I know on my mothers side that my great great great grandfather was chief Will’ium of what is known today as the Williams Lake First Nations (WLFN), or more traditionally as the T’exelcemc (people of WLFN), who have belonged to the Secwepemc (or Shuswap) Nation for over 6500 years (see Artifact 4 for a photograph of Chief Will’ium). His daughter Chulminik (Tsuil-menak) would be taken by a colonial settler named William Pinchbeck (Artifact 5), who also had a significant role in the development of Williams Lake as the unceded city that exists today. I don’t know for certain who my biological father was but it’s possible he was also WLFN. I was the product of an affair my biological Mother had, and she couldn’t keep me. My adopted father was her doctor, and he and the woman I know as my Mom, had been trying to conceive but weren’t able to. I’ll never forget how my Mom tells me from time to time how Dad came home and said there was going to be a little boy coming into the world that would need a family - would they want to adopt that little boy? Would they want to adopt me? And they did.

- END OF WEEK 01 -

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