Great Photographers Research Assignment

Your job is to research the work and impact of a “great” photographer, presenting this to the class through Powerpoint.

HINT: Look at the Evaluation form I’ll use – it’s at the bottom of this page.

Main Points to Address, visually if possible

• Why are they considered “great”? This will usually be either a technical/artistic advance that they pioneered, or simply their superb work.
• What is their context?
• What photographic and artistic movements were going on at the time?
• How did their life history feed into who they became as an artist? E.g. experience of war; people they met; physical challenges
• Find some visuals to illustrate this if possible e.g. what were styles like in their day; if for example they were part of the “Bauhaus” movement, what artwork/architcecture and so on can you find to show what this means.
• Show a couple of photos of what they looked like.
• How did their work evolve over time? – show examples and briefly talk about it
• What images represent their contribution best? – show their best, most famous works, and also your personal favourites
• What is your personal reaction – are they truly “great” in your mind? Why? How might knowledge of their work affect your photographic art?

Your Presentation Should:

• Be about 7-10 minutes long
• Be very visual – most slides should have an image or two on them. Give most TEXT a SMALL Font!!!
• Have a title slide with a representative photo and if possible a picture of the photographer. Include their name and your name.
• Include at least 10 major works by your photographer that illustrate why their work is considered great, how it evolved, and the breadth of their work.
• Be presented IN YOUR OWN WORDS! DO NOT copy paragraphs of text onto your presentation. Instead, think about what each source is saying, and distil the main ideas into your own words. Your presentation will be a lot more interesting, natural and convincing if you use your own words rather than parroting others!
• Have small font bulleted points that you elaborate on orally, rather than paragraphs of text that you read. In other words, each slide should have a few main points on it to trigger your memory, and summarize for the audience the information that you’ll be telling us. You might talk for a full minute on what’s summarized in a few words on the slide. If you’re not comfortable elaborating without notes, you can have printed notes to help you, but try to not just read from them – be natural, and try to maintain eye contact with your audience.
• Give your personal reaction. What did you find inspiring/useful about their work in your growth as a photographic artist? Do you truly believe they’re “great”? You can do this as a summary or mix it in with your other commentary as you go.
• Include sources. Keep track of the source of each image and quote, and put the URL in small font nearby. On the last slide, list all sources. This is easy if you keep track as suggested below.

What Do You hand In?

All files must be in this folder: G:/AWT3/Great Photographer

I will collect the whole folder, and expect to find:

• The Powerpoint file (only one – delete older versions before collection) Name it this way: Photographer_by_Your Name.ppt
• All research notes. I suggest keeping a Word file named Research.doc. Then, as you do your research, type notes into it, copy quotes into it, copy URLs (web addresses of source documents and images) into it. If you do written research notes, hand those in instead, with your name clearly on each page
• Jpegs. Don’t just copy & paste images from websites into Powerpoint directly. Save them as Jpegs so you can pick and choose later, and so that you can do simple cropping and resizing in Photoshop if necessary.

*** Delete large unnecessary files from your workspace after you’re done with them, before collection. ***

Help! I Don’t Know Any Great Photographers!

That’s the point – through your research and your classmates’ presentations, you’ll get to know many of them.

Who Can You Can Choose?

A Photographer From: http://www.riverman.fsbusiness.co.uk/decisif.html or http://www.masters-of-photography.com/

Scroll down to “Great Photographers” on the first link. You’ll find a list of 22 names, with links to SOME of the many research sites you can use.

When you’ve found someone that interests you, with enough information sources, let me know and I’ll sign you up: first come, first served, one to a customer!

If you know of or find another major photographer, you can ask to do them instead of one on the list. BUT, you have to be able to demonstrate that they were a major force in the development of photography, not just someone who took good photos. What did they contribute that was new - artistically, technically or socially? Some of the “great” photographers on the list pioneered new subjects for photography, rather than a new way to take photos, but this changed the way that photography was thought of, or broadened the scope of what was considered photographic art.

Chosen Photographers and Presentation Dates

How Do You Research?

DO NOT JUST GO TO WIKIPEDIA!!! There are tons of websites with info about each of these photographers. Find them through the links on the site above, through http://www.masters-of-photography.com/, and through Google searches. Don’t stop at the first step; follow further links and ideas. For instance, if you find a photographer was part of the f64 group, Google “f64”. Go to online gallery sites and search for your photographer there – for instance go to http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/ and choose Photography from the “Types of Art” box. Then look at the “Gelatin Silver” and “Color” categories. Check the library!

When???

Work on this while taking a break from developing and printing, from PhotoShop work, and at home.

Evaluation:

Ask yourself how you would evaluate your research and presentation based on these criteria:

Ready to present on schedule?	√
All files in the correct folder? Powerpoint named correctly? All pics used also saved as Jpegs there? All extra files deleted?	√
Research notes in a file in the correct folder, or written notes handed in?	√
Starts with Title slide – your name, his/her name, and a suitable image	√
Small font brief point form summaries with each slide to cue what is said verbally?	√
Explained how they were great; proved their greatness by showing publications, references, shows, influence, etc.	√
Showed briefly how their life history influenced their work; what they looked like	√
Showed context of their work – pics of the world at their time & place; other art; influences	√
Shows equipment they would have used, if unusual	√
Analyzed their work – technique, common themes, content etc.	√
Showed how their work evolved over time	√
10 representative photos that show the heart of their work? Put the URL in small font under each pic?	√
Fully researched - used and kept track of several sites beyond Wikipedia, URLs on last slide?	√
Spoke naturally in your own words? Audible, animated, eye contact with audience?	√
Understood what you were saying; asked for research help when stuck?	√
Presentation interesting, informative, original?	√
Audience learned why you liked this photographer and understands how they were truly “great”?	√