Course Syllabus

 

Photo Documentary and Discovery

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Semester & Location:

Spring 2021 - DIS Stockholm

Type & Credits:

Elective - 3 credits

Course Travel:

TBC

Major Disciplines:

Communications, Photography, Visual Arts, Art History

Faculty Members:

Anna Simonsson info@annasimonsson.com 

Program Director:

Andreas Brøgger abr@dis.dk

Academic Coordinator:

academics@disstockholm.se 

Time & Place:

Tuesdays 11:40-14:35, Classroom 1D-508

 

COVID-19 Statement

We all have a collective responsibility to avoid the spread of COVID-19 at DIS. Throughout this semester, please monitor yourself carefully for symptoms of COVID-19 (dry cough, high temperature, breathing difficulties, sore throat, headache, muscle pain, loss of smell/taste). If you experience any of these symptoms, please stay home and contact the DIS emergency phone. The respondent will coordinate with Academics at DIS Stockholm, who will in turn contact your individual faculty. If you are otherwise well but isolating due to possible exposure or mild symptoms, it is your responsibility to keep up with your coursework - we will organize hybrid classes for you to join via Zoom. If you are unwell due to COVID-19 and unable to attend class or study, your absence will be excused. Your faculty will work with you to ensure you are able to make up missed course content due to illness. You are still responsible for completing any missed work. 

Description of Course

Use your camera as a passport for opening doors in Sweden and as your tool to explore and understand the cultures, people, and places you encounter.  The knowledge you gain in doing this will give you a steady base to feel comfortable and more confident as a photographer when traveling in Sweden and abroad.

In this course, you learn to research and tell your individual story through photography. Utilizing workshops and excursions outside the classroom, you develop the skills to dive into different cultures and use your camera as a medium for understanding communities and telling your story through photographs.

Study abroad often serves as a way to widen your horizon and understanding of the world. It is a way to take you out of your comfort zone both artistically and as a person. Photography is also a way to deepen your study abroad experience. Rather than creating photographs as mementos, you will take pictures that are unique to your stay in Stockholm but still refer back to your life in general. You will learn what makes a picture interesting and how to create images that are beyond your typical beautiful sunset shot. You will be encouraged to view your new environment – not through the lens of an outsider viewing a novelty, but to give viewers special access into your Swedish world.

This course combines assignments in practicing photography, studio critique, and research for a photographic project. At the end of the semester, your project will be exhibited at DIS in the end-of-semester showcase. While the artistic practice is almost entirely self-directed, you will participate in weekly critiques in order to gain a deeper understanding of your own photographs, as well as those of your colleagues. Using the basic tools of photography – a camera, a lot of effort and practice, and light – you will learn to discuss your work responsibly and concisely. Critiques focus on intentionality and embedded meaning, while studying some of the most important photographers.

Learning Objectives

  • You will learn how to choose photos from a larger set in order to create and pinpoint the story you want to tell with your photographs.
  • You will understand how to tell a story with photographs and understand how light, composition, colors, and the way you take the photos affect the story.
  • You will engage in the language of photographic critique – both of your own work and that of your fellows – and be able to thoughtfully describe the meaning of a photograph. 
  • You will work your way to find a personal artistic statement and a personal style on how taking pictures and telling a story.
  • You will develop a new sensitivity to looking at the world through the lens of a camera. 

Faculty

Anna Simonsson is a freelance photojournalist and photo editor with 15 years in the business. She has won awards for her photojournalism. Anna has also taught at Nordens Fotoskola in Stockholm.

Readings

Søren Pagter “The Essential image”

Field Studies

This course is built on field studies and learning outside the classroom! During field studies, we will engage in creative workshops and on more practical training where we can teach tips and tricks out in the field. You'll get instant feedback on your photographic work.

Guest Lecturers

Hannah Modigh is one of the guest lectures in this course. Hannah Modigh is a well rewarded photographer (for example Magnum Photography Awards, Lars Tunbjörk price and Photo book of the year, Sweden), and has held several exhibitions, both in Sweden and internationally. Hannah was born 1980 in Stockholm but spent big parts of her childhood in India and on Österlen in the south of Sweden. She has during her adult life lived in Paris and Copenhagen and is now living and working in Stockholm.

Approach to Teaching

As much as we want you to open up and show your individual fears, feelings, and expectations, me as teacher also open up on a professional level and share parts of my photographic journey that includes photographic mistakes, failures and successes. Because being open is an important skill for photographers to have when contacting people that you would like to photograph, we will maintain this level of being open and I want you all to feel that the classroom is a safe space. View the classroom as a place where you can be yourselves and dare to make mistakes.

Expectations of Students

I want you to feel comfortable enough to dare to make photographic mistake, while at the same time giving the photographic assignment your best effort. I understand that all students have different backgrounds and experiences in photography, therefore will have different levels of results. I expect that students will work hard, try their best, be creative and have fun while doing it. That is what I reward.

Evaluation

In class, we will work a lot with the result of the assignments. We will go through the photos taken on assignments, give critique in a way that you as a student grow as a photographer and person. Students will also comment on each other’s work. A lot of the evaluation is based on how much participation the student has in class and how much effort is put into the assignments. We reward hard work over talent and we want students to feel comfortable to try new photographic styles so that at the end of the semester the student will have found their photographic style or way of storytelling.

Presentation - Your presentations in front of the class

Midterm - How your work with the final project is progressing

Participation - How you work with quicker assignments, presentations and group assignments.

Final portfolio - Your work with the final project and showcase.

Artist statement - How you work together with other forms of art.

Attendance at all class sessions is mandatory. Two unexcused absences will warrant a reduced letter grade. Three unexcused absences will result in failure. 

In order to be eligible for a passing grade in the class, all work must be submitted. 

The use of distracting devices (smartphones, laptops, etc.) is strictly prohibited during class. Failure to comply will adversely affect participation grades. 

NOTE: Students are expected to bring their own camera, preferably a DSLR that is capable of shooting in a fully manual mode. 

Grading

Assignment

Percent

Assignments

10%

Critique 

20%

Presentations

10%

Midterm 

10%

Participation 

20%

Final Portfolio 

20%

Artist Statement 

10%

Assignments

Portrait of a stranger: An assignment that takes you out of your comfort zone. Portrait strangers that you approach in the street. This is a great way to get to learn about Sweden and Swedes a little bit while at the same time practice your photography in a stressful situation.

Research and photo assignment: We will brainstorm in class - what is typically Swedish? From that list, choose one subject, do more research about it and do a mini photo project on this theme. Examples include parental leave among fathers, immigrants in Sweden, and gender and equality.

Documentary assignment: Photograph, document a person, and try to come as close as you can both mentally and with your camera.

Course Travel

A guided visit to Museum of Photography

A visit to Blindenrestaurant in Berlin. Eat your dinner in total darkness. An interesting experiment in understanding how we use our visual senses.

Workshop with a local photographer

Explore Berlin with your camera and get a deeper understanding of the city and its citizens with instant feedback from the teachers.

Everyday you will get a new, small, photographic assignment that you will present the same day. Such as documenting a  touristic place with different eyes.

Embrace the German culture in Berlin! Uncover the authentic side of Berlin on an arts and culture private tour with a local expert. Even if it’s not a specific photographic event you will get an understanding how other art forms could help you in your way of looking at photographs and on how taking your own.

Academic Regulations  

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:

 

DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org

 

Course Summary:

Date Details Due