The Grammar Sequence
The Grammar of Photography is a sequence of online courses designed to develop visual understanding, historical awareness, and personal vision. Classes are 10 weeks long and meet once per week for 3 hours.
Each class builds on the last. Ideas introduced in earlier courses are revisited in later ones, placed in new contexts, and extended over time. The sequence is structured to allow understanding to accumulate, so that how photographs produce meaning becomes clearer through sustained engagement.
Context
The program has been developed over years of teaching students in BFA and MFA programs, adapted for photographers working outside of degree-granting institutions.
The goal is to provide a similarly rigorous and sustained learning experience—one that develops both the ability to make photographs and the ability to understand how they function. The sequence serves both as a foundation for those seeking to enter the field and as a framework for those who want a deeper engagement with the problems and possibilities of photography.
How the Sequence Works
Each class combines lecture, weekly assignments, and critique, linking the practice of making photographs with the ideas that shape them.
Across the sequence, the focus shifts from the structure of individual images to broader questions of style, interpretation, context, and the development of a body of work. Earlier ideas are continually revisited and expanded, allowing connections to emerge over time and giving structure to the process of seeing more clearly.
The Courses
Grammar 1 — How Photographs Mean
Introduces the foundational elements of photographic structure, focusing on how meaning is produced through framing, vantage point, timing, and the organization of forms. The course establishes a working vocabulary for understanding how photographs communicate, and begins the process of translating observation into visual form.
Grammar 2 — The Elements of Style
Examines how the decisions made in taking a photograph express not only the subject but the photographer. If Grammar 1 introduces a vocabulary, Grammar 2 explores how that vocabulary becomes consistent—how a way of seeing develops into style. Style is understood not as decoration, but as the visible trace of a coherent relationship between subject, sensibility, and form.
Grammar 3 — Structure, Space, and Values
Extends the study of structure and space, while introducing questions of intent and interpretation. The course considers how detail mediates between the individual and the universal, and how time functions as a central element in the depiction of experience. It concludes with a discussion of values: what photographers believe is possible to achieve through their work, and how those beliefs are expressed in an image.
Grammar 4 — Creative Process, Beauty, and the Dialogue Among Images
Centers on the creative process and the role of beauty, while introducing the idea that meaning can emerge through relationships between images. The course examines how sequences—whether on a wall, in a book, or online—create context and shape interpretation, expanding the understanding of photographs beyond the single frame.
Grammar 5 — The Turn Inward: Making Vision Personal
Examines a pivotal shift in photography toward self-expression and private inquiry. The course considers how subject, process, and intention align to produce work that is specific—and truthful—to the individual photographer. It distinguishes between the personal as subject matter and the personal as a deeper alignment of vision and form.
Grammar 6 — The Photographer’s Book as Art Form
Focuses on the photobook as a distinct medium, exploring how sequencing, pacing, and design transform a group of images into a unified work. The course considers the book not as a container of photographs, but as an experience structured in time—one that shapes how meaning unfolds.
Grammar 7 — Photography’s Evolving Language
Surveys the historical development of photography through fundamental questions: what a photograph can be, what it should be, and how those ideas have changed over time. The course examines the dialogue between photography and other arts, and how evolving practices have shaped the medium’s visual language.
Grammar 8 — Images and Words
Focuses on how a body of work is articulated. Students analyze what to develop and what to leave behind, while exploring the relationship between visual and verbal expression. The course culminates in the production of a portfolio and a written statement that clarifies intention and frames the work for an audience.
Grammar 9 — Context and Lineage
Examines how photographs are positioned within a broader field of ideas and practices. The course considers influence, reference, and historical context, asking how meaning is shaped not only within the image but through its relationship to what has come before.
Grammar 10 — Key Concepts
Provides a comprehensive review of the ideas developed throughout the sequence. The course consolidates the curriculum, highlights connections among concepts, and offers new perspectives on themes introduced earlier, allowing the structure of the program to be understood as a whole.
The Seminar Class
The Seminar Class extends work developed in the sequence through sustained, individualized critique. Students focus on long-term projects, with an emphasis on refinement, continuity, and depth of engagement. Enrollment is limited to ensure sustained attention to each participant’s work.
Where to Begin?
Most students begin with Grammar 1.
If you are unsure where to begin, email:
→ Email: info@grammarofphotography.com
Include a brief description of your work and what you would like to develop.