Assignment Step-by-Step Instructions Find and read Szarkowskis article “The Photographers Eye.” Make notes in your own words while researching. Keep track of quotations and sources so that you can reference the information later. Compose a paper, which should be a minimum of 750 words, and discuss the following.
Assignment 1: Critical Theory and Fine Art Photography
Assignment Overview
“The introduction of new programs of study, including American studies, women’s studies, gender studies, African American studies, interdisciplinary studies, and cultural studies in universities in the 1960s, led to an increase in cultural and critical writings on photography” (Critical Theory lecture). Contemporary professional photographers must possess an ability to digest critical theory and apply it to their own works and the works of others.
Assignment Description
Search the web to locate the article “The Photographer’s Eye” by John Szarkowski. Read the article and make notes.
In this assignment, you will review an influential article on photography and use the theories to analyze two photographs.
Note: You should not use the same artists that you will research for your final project. You will select one image from each of the columns below.
- Precursors to Postmodernism:
- Andy Warhol, Red Elvis, 1962 (Pop Art)
- Robert Rauschenberg, Hommage to Frederick Kiesler, 1966 (Pop Art)
- Minor White, Moencopi Strata, Capitol Reef, Utah, 1962 (Structuralism)
- Ed Ruscha, State Board of Equalization, 14601 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, California, 1967 (Poststructuralism)
- Robert Adams, East from Flagstaff Mountain, 1976 (Poststructuralism)
- Duane Michals, Things are Queer (Series)
- Robert Heinecken, Costume for Feb ’68, 1968 (Series)
- David Hockney, Christopher Isherwood Talking to Bob Holman, Santa Monica, March 14, 1983, 1983 (Series)
- John Baldessari, Throwing Four Balls in the Air to Get a Square, 1974 (Conceptual Art)
- Bernd and Hilla Becher, Winding Towers, 1983 (Typologies)
- Arnulf Rainer, Angst (Portrait of the Artist), 1971 (Performance Art)
- William Wegman, Man Ray with Sculpture, 1978 (Performance Art)
- Postmodernism:
- Richard Prince, Untitled (Cowboy), 1982
- Barbara Kruger, Untitled (You Get Away with Murder), 1987
- Sherrie Levine, After Walker Evans, 1980
- Paul Berger, Mathematics, #57, 1976
In a Microsoft Word document, create a report (750 words minimum); support your statements with appropriate references whenever necessary. Follow current MLA guidelines for writing style, grammar, spelling, and citation of sources.
Assignment Step-by-Step Instructions
- Find and read Szarkowski’s article “The Photographer’s Eye.”
- Make notes in your own words while researching. Keep track of quotations and sources so that you can reference the information later. Compose a paper, which should be a minimum of 750 words, and discuss the following:
- Summarize the major points of Szarkowski’s article in your own words, pointing out areas where you agree and disagree with the author’s point of view on the thing itself, detail, frame, time, and vantage point. Reference the weekly readings in your textbook as well as Week 4 lectures to support your argument. Note at least two specific examples to justify why you agree or disagree with Szarkowski’s main points.
- Select one artwork from the Precursors to Postmodernism column and one artwork from the Postmodernism column above. Do not select the same artist as your Week 5 final project photographer. Locate and study a copy of the two photographs. Embed them in your paper.
- Using Szarkowski’s theories, analyze the two images you picked from the list in the assignment, referencing appropriate critical theory vocabulary.
- Compare and contrast the images. How did the later photograph evolve from the earlier photographic approach? What changed?
- Discuss your position on artists who use photography in their work—is it sculpture, performance, photography, or something else? Explain on the basis of the article you read how Szarkowski would evaluate such work.
- Make conclusions about how the fine art photographic aesthetic has evolved from the 1950s. What changed? What stayed the same? What was rejected?
- On the basis of what you’ve seen so far in the lectures and textbook, what elements of the postmodern photograph do you see continuing in the future?
- Add a works-cited page to your Microsoft Word document that lists all the sources you used in your research. Follow MLA conventions.
