It's SUMMER: Relax, Explore, Reflect, Regenerate & Create!
Ok, Summer homework sounds like a drag -- but not when it is the work you love doing.
"I take photographs with love, so I try to make them art objects. But I make them for myself first and foremost - that is important." -Jacques-Henri Lartigue
	When you give a problem in art, unlike in math, you do not want everyone coming back with the same answer. In art ther is no one right answer. That is its truth, beauty and frustration. -Jerry Uelsmann
"As I have practiced it, photography produces pleasure by simlicity. I see something special and show it to the camera. A picture is produced. It is mine, until someone else sees it, then it is theirs." -Sam Abell

Your message

Photography is something you should do for yourself, because you love it. It is your message to the world about how you see things and what is important to you. Photography can also be a career choice. If you make each image your own; if you have your own personal vision & style--you are much more likely to be a success in commercial photography.

Do this for yourself

Do this homework because you love taking & sharing your photographs. Do this because you love learning and you love to challenge yourself--not because I have told you to do this or because you have to--if that is the way you feel about it, then you may be in the wrong class.

You learn & grow when you challenge yourself

Keep in mind that even things you love can be challenging and difficult at times, not everything you do will be completely successful. We learn from experience, mistakes are only mistakes, if you do not learn from them.

The AP Art Portfolio

Students who choose to make and turn in an AP Art Portfolio, accept a challenge to become a serious photographer & art student. They must begin to explore ideas and themes through their visual art/photography and they must hone their technical & compositional skills as well. Your Summer Homework Assignments are designed to help you begin to practice some of skills necessary to become more serious about photography.

Take Lots of Pictures

The more you make pictures the faster you will understand your camera, your style, your message & yourself. So don’t limit yourself to only taking pictures for these assignments. Take pictures every day or when ever you feel inspired.

Keep a journal

(25 Journal points included in each assignment)

Go buy or make a sketchbook or notebook to write down your thoughts about life & art. You will write in your journal for each assignment and take it with you on your art museum visit. The journal writing component of each assignment will be marked with an *.

Writing reveals your thoughts to others, so this is a record of how you used your brain over the summer. You can also glue pictures into it, draw in it and just write down your ideas for future use & reference. Keeping a journal is a great habit to get into.

Assignment #1

Looking at the work of other artists/photographers

(100 Points)

• search on-line for photographers you like

• *keep notes in your journal

• check out books on 3 different photographers

• look at them, READ THEM, think about them

• *write about them in your journal

Before you begin making your own images you should take a look at what other master photographers have done. It’s ok to get ideas from other artist/photographers and use them in your own work. Synthesis is when you take what you have learned from others and blend it with your own unique ideas to make something completely new. So you NEED to look at and think about as much art and photography as you possibly can. It is something I hope you will personally enjoy doing too.

Begin by searching photographers on the web. *Keep notes in your Journal about which photographers you like. Set aside an hour or so every week to just search.

Find three or more photographers that inspire you and are famous enough to have books of their work published. Go to the library and check out books about these photographers. If you do not have a library card, you need to get one. If you are a resident of a town a library card is free. Bring proof of residence to your local public library and sign up. The librarians will help you with this, just ask.

If your public library has a limited selection of photography books, you can do a search for books from other libraries within the Library System and request that a book from another library be sent to your library so you can check it out. Ask your librarian for help if you have never done this.

You can also go to a bookstore & buy books if you really love a photographer & have extra cash.

Look at each image in the book think about it’s subject & how the subject is portrayed. *For each of the three books, answer the questions below in your journal If you prefer to type your answers out on a computer, you can print the answers out and tape or glue them in your journal.

*Here are the things you need to write about for each of the three photographers:

1. The Photographers Name

2. Where he/she lives

3. What kind of life did they lead or do they lead? You may have to surmise this info from what you see in the photos.

4. Time period in which they worked or are working

5. What genre does he/she tend to work in or what subject(s) does this photographer explore?( for example: still life, fashion, street photography, photojournalism, architectural, portraiture, conceptual, etc)

6. What is he/she saying about the subjects ? What is the photographers message? What leads you to believe this? Give visual evidence from at least 3 pictures that leads you to your conclusions. Print and cut out copies of images you describe and glue them into the journal.

7. Describe the photographer’s style & technique, for example, are the images black & white or color? What is their point of view? Do they have a real, or fictional feel? Are they more documentary or stylized? Have they been manipulated in Photoshop? What mood do they have? How does the photographer tend to compose his/her pictures? Are the images literal, symbolic or metaphoric

8. What do you like or dislike about the pictures?

There are many websites where you can learn about master photographers. Look at the following website to get started. You’ll find Contemporary Master Photographers on this website too:

http://photography-now.net/international_photography_index/

You may find other photographers you like, but here are some suggestions to look up:

More on the next page

Ansel Adams	Edward Weston	Eugene Atget	Margaret Bourke-White
Bill Brandt	Manuel Alvarez Bravo	Brassai	Harry Callahan
Julia Margaret Cameron	Imogen Cunningham	William Eggleston	Walker Evans
Lee Friedlander	Emmet Gowin	Lewis Hine	Andre Kertesz
William Klein	Dorthea Lange	Jacques-Henri Lartigue	Helen Levitt
Robert Mapplethorpe	Ralph Eugene Meatyard	Joel Meyerwitz	Lisette Model
Tina Modotti	Eadweard Muybridge	Nadar	Arnold Newman
Timothy O’Sullivan	Paul Outerbridge	Gordon Parks	Irving Penn
Jacob Riis	Alexander Rodchenko	Sebastiao Salgaso	Cindy Sherman
Stephen Shore	W. Eugene Smith	Edward Steichen	Alfred Sieglitz
Bill Strand	Jerry Uelsmann	Minor White	Garry Winogrand
Jeff Wall	Diane Arbus	Bernice Abbot	Sally Mann
Loretta Lux	Julie Blackmon	Tom Chambers	Janieta Eyre
David Hilliared	Elinor Carucci	Lori Nix	Joel Sternfeld
Hellen van Meene	Bruce Davidson	Joel Peter Witkin	Gregory Crewdson
Hiroshi Sugimoto	Sarah Hobbs	Nan Goldin	David Lachapelle
Lucus Samaras	Lyndon Wade	Annie Lebovitz	Weegee
Mary Ellen Mark	Danny Lyon	Les Krims	Maggie Smith
Matthew Brady	Joel Meyerowitz	Tina Modotti	David Byrne
Robert Frank	Ralph Gibson	Allen Ginsberg	Joeseph Koudelka
Richard Misrach	AlPedro Mery David Muench	Helmut Newton	Herb Ritts
John Sexton	Eugene Smith	Felix Nadar	Frederick Sommer
EJ Beloocq	Roy DeCarva	Robert Doisneau	John Guttman
Lazlo Maholy-Nagy	William Fox-Talbot	Lee Miller	Man-Ray

Assignment #2

* Create the ultimate portfolio

(100 points)

· *In your Journal - Create the ultimate portfolio…..

12 Breadth works and 12 Concentration works using pictures from the internet. The Breadth should show a variety of skills, techniques, and a whole lot of creativity. The Concentration should be a subject of your choosing (you can choose from the list below or make up your own) but not all from the same photographer.

· * In your Journal write down any thoughts that come to your as you explore and find great works on the internet or in books or at museums.

Assignment #3

Make 150 or more Digital Images

(100 points)

To prepare you for the AP Portfolio, you will make groups of images based on 3 themes or ideas. For each of your 3 themes make at least 50 images. Keep in mind that not all the images will be “keepers.” As we have practiced in Photo I, if you shoot a lot, then you have a lot to choose from. We will edit the 50 images down to the 5 or so best.

After you take some of your pictures, you should upload your images to folders marked with the name of each theme and save them to a USB or CD that you will bring in the first week of school. Also, DON’T FORGET TO BACK UP your work!!!Be safe and back up all your work on a second CD, DVD, Flashdrive, removable hard drive and/or on your computer hard drive or desktop. If you email them to yourself, be sure you have the original file saved somewhere.

The Concentration part of the AP 2-D Design (Photography) Portfolio A body of work investigating a strong underlying visual idea in 2-D design. As you work on your concentration, your idea may change and grow. It is important to write about the development of your ideas as you work on the project.

*Make at least 2 journal entries that are at least a half page each about your three themes. Be sure to include the following:

• Write what the theme is in your journal

• Write down ideas before you shoot

• Write about how it went, what worked, what didn’t, how did your idea develop and change as you shot?

• If you can print out your favorite images and use double stick tape to put them in your journal, then critique their composition, meaning, color, lighting, focus, etc.

Here are some suggested Themes. You may interpret them any way you wish. You may also choose to come up with all or some of your own themes. Any theme that you get excited about is a good one!

• Left • Roots • self identity • Anthropomorphized objects • robots • dreams • broken • hope • anger • water • Americans • dance

• illusion • athletes in motion • my car • direction • maps • grace • lines • layers • metamorphosis • connections • trees • stories • architectural detail

• super heros • vegetables • isolation • wonder • secrets • abstract composition • monochromatic color • images based on favorite book or movie • couples • man vs. nature • rhythm • minimalism

Reminder: Don’t forget what you learned in Beginning Photo!! Here are Rules of Thumb For Making Good Photographs

• try many different points of view

• use verticals & horizontals

• balance the image--the two main types of balance are symmetrical & asymmetrical

• simplicity

• rule of thirds

• avoid mergers

• leading lines

• repetition

• layering

• framing

• use depth of field

• silhouettes

• look for interesting light & shadows

• experiment!!!!!

Remember your craft. Set your camera to properly to get the best results. READ YOUR CAMERA’S INSTRUCTION MANUAL!!!!!

• set your camera to the highest quality image

• use auto ISO or set an appropriate ISO

• use auto white balance or set an appropriate white balance

• focus on the subject

• use appropriate camera presets like the sports setting to stop action

• change your point of view often

• use the rules of good composition

• use the elements of design

• get ideas & themes from the photographers you learned about in Assignment #1

• If you have trouble choosing a theme email me at jillobermaier@gmail.com

Assignment #4

Museum Visit

(100 points)

Go visit a museum and look at art and or photography. Bring a museum map, pamphlet or tickets home with you and tape it in your journal to prove you went.

• *Bring your journal and take notes on at least three artworks.

• Make a sketch of each artwork or take a picture to put in the journal later (if the museum allows photos of art work)

• If there is any information next to the artwork, read it.

• What is the title of the artwork?

• Who is the artist?

• What medium was used?

• When was it created?

• Write a description of the subject and composition.

• What meaning do you gain from this image?

• What visual evidence leads you to believe this?

• What do you like & dislike about this image?

Below are just suggestions, but you may count a visit to any art museum or Fine Art galleries:

Museum	City
Naples Museum of Art	5833 Pelican Bay Blvd. Naples, Florida
Any Art Galleries in town that have high quality Art that interests you in some way.
If you go on vacation – Keep an eye out for Museums you might be able to visit.

Have Fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://trendland.com/photography/

• Assess your Portfolio based on these Design Principles:

•Unity/Variety

•Balance/Emphasis/Contrast

•Rhythm

•Repetition

•Proportion/Scale

Figure/Ground Relationships