Exploration and Landscape Photography

1. Choose a broad theme for the exhibition from among the ten rubrics on the syllabus.

(example: Exploration and Landscape Photography)

2. Develop an argument about a particular facet of this broad theme that you find interesting.

(example: how different photographers in the American West represented the problem of environmental destruction)

3. Identify, examine, and research three photographs that we have not explored in class, with which you can make your argument convincingly.

4. Write an introduction to your exhibition, in which you describe the above elements, providing the “visitor” to your exhibit an overview of the interpretation that you are putting forward, and an explanation of how the images you’ve chosen support—or challenge—the claims you are asserting.

5. Write three separate “wall labels” on your chosen photographs, highlighting the formal features of each, and quickly moving to demonstrate how those particular features support your argument, and fit into the broader theme that you have chosen to explore.

Length and Style

The “Introduction to the Exhibition” should be approximately 750 words in length. Each wall label should be about 100-250 words. Use a standard system of references to cite the primary and secondary sources that you have consulted. One fairly straightforward system is the Chicago Style, the main points of which can be found here:http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

llustrations

You must include with your essay clear illustrations of the photographs that you are writing about, and captions identifying, if known, the artist, title, date, and institutional collection.

Finding photographs.

There are countless resources for locating photographs related to our course. A number of institutions with important collections of nineteenth-century photographs have made their holdings available online. Take your time to enjoy exploring these collections and discovering their treasures. This is a small selection of the most prominent collections that have good online databases that are publicly accessible. You need not choose your photographs from these collections.

National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa)

http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/category.php?categoryid=6

Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)

http://metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections?what=Photographs&pg=1

George Eastman House (Rochester)

http://licensing.eastmanhouse.org/GEH/C.aspx?VP3=HRender_VPage

Museum of Modern Art (New York)

https://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ADE%3AI%3A4|G%3AHI%3AE%3A1&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=2

Where can I find examples of this kind of writing?

Most exhibition catalogues include the two elements of writing that you are asked to perform (a longer introductory essay describing the logic of the exhibit, as well as individual entries on specific objects). Following are some recent exhibition catalogues that can provide you with models for your writing. These are examples only; your best bet may be to go to the library and explore the holdings of exhibition catalogues.

Baldwin, Gordon, Malcolm R. Daniel, Sarah Greenough, and Roger Fenton. 2004. All the mighty world: the photographs of Roger Fenton, 1852-1860. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Fineman, Mia. Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012.

Nickel, Douglas R. 1999. Carleton Watkins: the art of perception. San Francisco, Calif: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

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