Art Synthesis Essay #2                                                                                   Professor Ungemah

In class the past two weeks, we have worked with artist-in-residence photographer Julia Vandenoever to discuss photography, you participated in your own portrait session and created photographs to tell a dream sequence, and we visited the Whitney Museum of American Art.

In your second synthesis essay, please do the following:

Introductory Paragraph: Summarize what you learned from Julia’s time in our class. What two things did you learn about photography/making photographs that you did not know before? How will this affect your everyday photo-making practices?

Body Paragraph #1: Tell me your dream that you used to create your dream sequence. Next, explain what photographs you made to tell your dream. What do you feel was your best photograph? Do you feel your dream sequence was successful or not? What do you wish you’d done differently now that the project is done?

Body Paragraph #2: What was your experience like being photographed by Julia? What message were you trying to convey? Was the experience awkward, fun, interesting? Do you like the photographs? Why/why not?

Body Paragraph #3: In class, we conducted an art critique/crit. This is how artist give/get feedback on their work in a studio setting. This is also how their professor grades them. What did you think about this type of assessment (versus writing a paper, taking an exam, doing a project)? What type of feedback did you receive? Was it helpful? Was it not? Critique the crit!

Body Paragraph #4: Using Barthes’ term studium  (spell it correctly, dammit!), explain a work of art that drew you in from the Whitney visit. Describe the work of art using visual elements. Explain what about the work drew you in, and what your connection or experience was that made you interested.

Body Paragraph #5: In the Warhol exhibit at the Whitney, Warhol used photographs as the foundation for much of his art. He was interested in mass communication, popular culture, and images that we see daily. Pick one of his works and describe WHAT photograph he reproduced in it, WHAT effect that reproduction had, and WHY you think he chose that image for reproduction. What was he saying about consumer culture through his art?

Concluding Paragraph: After two weeks of discussing photography and working with Julia, what did you like the most? What do you wish we could have spent more time on? Please be honest as this is good feedback for next year.