The Grammar of Photography

The Grammar Sequence

The Grammar Sequence provides a visual foundation for anyone wanting to become a better photographer. Based on my experience teaching in various BFA and MFA programs, the goal of these classes is to provide a similar type of learning experience to non-degree students of photography. The classes will serve as rigorous and comprehensive preparation for anyone wanting to enter the field, as well as offering a framework for all those who wish a deeper understanding of the problems and opportunities posed by the medium of photography. Integral to the structure of the courses is a recurring aspect: ideas from prior classes are revisited in later classes and given a new context, expanding and extending the original idea. This approach facilitates making connections and deepening our understanding of the potential richness of experience every time we make or look at a photograph.

Grammar 1 focuses on the decisions we make as we take a picture. The class introduces the idea that how we see and how the camera sees are two different things. A large part of taking better photographs has to do with acknowledging that difference.

Grammar 2 examines how the decisions we make when taking a picture express something not just about the subject but about the photographer as well. What is consistent in how we see? Is that consistency a result of choice or of habit? If Grammar 1 introduces the photographer’s vocabulary, Grammar 2 serves as an overview of photography’s elements of style.

Grammar 3 expands on key ideas about structure and depicting space from Grammar 1 and 2 and begins a discussion of values. We consider a how a photographer’s values and motivations are expressed in a photograph and the ways a viewer might read the image. We take a deeper look at the significance of detail in conveying narrative and meaning.

Grammar 4 centers on the creative process, an analysis of beauty, and investigates how images themselves interact. How do we keep our process as photographers open and active? What is the role of beauty in photography? How do groups of images, whether on the wall, in a book or on a website, provide a context for their perception and interpretation?

Grammar 5 explores a shift in photography beginning in the 1960’s which favored seeing photography as a vehicle for self-expression or a method of exploring private rather than public concerns. In Grammar 5, we’ll look at the impact of camera, process, choice of subject, and the photographer’s attitude on making images more specific to the individual.

Grammar 6 looks at photographs presented in book form. We'll consider the book not as a collection of photographs, but as an entity designed by the photographer to guide and contain the viewing experience. The photographer's book is an art form in itself, one which can offer an experience very different from viewing the same images on a gallery wall.

Grammar 7 is a history of photography which surveys aesthetic movements and technical innovation in the context of answering the “big questions” regarding the medium of photography. What could a photograph look like? What should it look like and why? What have been the connections and influences among photography and other media? How did photography gain acceptance as an art?

Grammar 8 has two functions. One is to take a step back and examine how your work in the previous classes fits together. What should you build upon? What to discard? The other goal is to get better at speaking and writing about photographs. We will explore the types of statements that can be made about images and the role of intuition and imagination in writing. Students will complete the class with an artist’s statement on a current photographic project.

Grammar Seminar: Lectures and readings enhance or expand upon topics from prior courses or are based upon selected readings and what is currently being shown in the galleries and museums of New York City. Students are working on longer term projects and receive regular feedback.

The Crit Class: Weekly feedback on on-going work in a small class setting. For advanced students working on long term projects.