Photos at Zoom

While our recurring series Photos at Noon has been put on hold until the museum reopens, we are thrilled to introduce our new online photography course: Photos at Zoom! Every week, Photos at Zoom will explore different topics relating to photography. Read on for more resources, recordings of past sessions, pdf guides to images discussed, and more.

Please note: All Photos at Zoom webinars will be recorded and transcribed.  If you require special accommodations, please contact mocp@colum.edu.

 Week 1: Fundamentals of Photography

March 25, 2020

Let’s start with the basics! In this discussion, we will analyze artworks that demonstrate a range of techniques including use of vantage point, framing, lighting, and depth of field. This selection will also introduce viewers to a variety of traditions, including portraiture and street photography. Join us online as we dig into some of the fundamental principles artists employ to create their images with works by Harry Callahan, Roy DeCarava, Clarissa Bonet, and Berenice Abbott, among others.

• Event details
• Watch video recording 

• Download the PDF of images discussed
• How to transform your own room into a Camera Obscura
• Learn more about the Shirley Card by Sarah Lewis for the New York Times
• Learn more about Roy Decarava by reading A True Picture of Black Skin by Teju Cole for the New York Times
• Watch Behind the Lens with Clarissa Bonet

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Week 2: Photographing the Domestic 

April 1, 2020

For this week, we will discuss works artists have made inside their homes  and intimate spaces as well as of family members and friends. We will build on topics discussed in Week 1 to introduce documentary and conceptual approaches in personal storytelling. Select artists featured include LaToya Ruby Frazier, Kelli Connell, Carrie Mae Weems, Cecil McDonald, and Melissa Pinney.

Event details
Watch video recording

• Additional resources
  Download the PDF of images discussed
• Read more about LaToya Ruby Frazer in the New York Times
• Hear Lisa Lindvay and Natalie Krick in conversation on the MoCP podcast, Focal Point
• Hear Melissa Ann Pinney and Joanne Leonard in conversation on the MoCP podcast, Focal Point
• Watch Behind the Lens with Cecil McDonald

Week 3: Landscape and Place 

April 8, 2020

Now bring your camera outside! This print viewing addresses various approaches to the genre of landscape photography from the late-19th Century to the present. We will discuss the numerous ways photographers have imaged the land, its use, and its place within the popular imagination. Select artists featured include William Henry Jackson, Marilyn Bridges, Henry Wessel, Jr., and Barbara Diener.

Event details 
Watch video recording 

• Download the PDF of images discussed
• See the images by Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams in Three Mormon Towns for Life magazine 
• Learn more about how George N. Barnard made his albumen prints
• See all the additional resources for this week here
• Watch Behind the Lens with Mark Klett

Week 4: Color Theory 

April 15, 2020

How does the use of color change the way people see your photographs? This session will focus on the fundamentals of color theory and how factors such as time of day, light source, and composition impacts the viewer's perception of color in images. Artists discussed include William Eggleston, Barbara Kasten, William Christenberry, Nakeya Brown, Hyers + Mebane, and more.

Event details 
Watch video recording 

• Download the PDF of images discussed
• Watch Barbara Kasten give a lecture
• Read the book The Elements of Color by Johannes Itten (1970)
• Watch Behind the Lens with Jay Wolke

Week 5: Constructed and Staged Images 

April 22, 2020

What can you build within your home to photograph? The sky is the limit. This session introduces artists who create narratives by carefully composing their settings, altering photographs, or going to more elaborate ends to construct images based in imagination rather than a record of “real” events.  Techniques vary, including handmade montage, collage, and stitching together multiple images in the darkroom or digitally.  Artists discussed include  Cindy Sherman, Endia Beal, Omar Iman, Cortis + Sonderegger, Colleen Keihm, Ayana Jackson, Jennifer Greenburg, and more.

Event details 
Watch video recording

• Download the PDF of images discussed
• See Ayana V. Jackson discuss her work
• Watch Behind the Lens Ross Sawyers

Week 6: Portraiture and the Human Subject 

April 29, 2020

This session introduces works by historical and contemporary photographers who depict the human subject and where visual information such as setting, clothing, body language, and facial expression speak to the identity of their subjects. Artists discussed include Hannah Starkey, Julia Margaret Cameron, Myra Greene, Natalie Krick, Dawoud Bey, Laurence Rasti, and more.

Event details 
Watch video recording

• Download the PDF of images discussed
• Watch Behind the Lens wuth Priya Kambli

Week 7: Socially Engaged Photography

May 6, 2020

This session introduces artists who use their practice to elevate awareness of social, economic, and cultural issues and to inspire positive social change. In this photographic approach, the process of collaboration is often as important as the physical artwork and the relationships between subject, audience, and community are paramount. This selection of work encourages consideration of the perceptions of social issues and how photography can either represent or misrepresent these topics, while also navigating the artists’ formal choices. Select artists include Darryl Cowherd, Susan Meiselas, Barbara Kruger, Lorenzo Triburgo, Zanele Muholi, and Danny Lyon.

Event details 
Watch video recording 

• Download the PDF of images discussed
• Read the broadsheet, Locating the Potential of Socially Engaged Photography by Eliza Gregory

Week 8: Recent Acquisitions

May 13, 2020

Are you interested in learning more about historical and contemporary works the MoCP has recently acquired? Would you like to learn what it’s like working behind the scenes in the museum’s collection? Join Collections Assistant, Madeline Heuer, as she takes us through some of her favorite artworks that have been added to the museum’s collection in the past year as well as some insights on a day in life in the museum’s vault. Select artists featured include Marsha ‘Red’ Adams, Dorothea Lange, Donna Ferrato, Joanne Leonard, Bruce Davidson, Patti Smith and Lynne Goldsmith.

Event details 
Watch video recording 

Week 9: Into the Vault with MoCP Director Natasha Egan

May 20, 2020

Ever wonder where the MoCP stores its collection of 16,000 photographs? This week for Photos at Zoom, join MoCP executive director Natasha Egan in an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek into the vault! Learn about the MoCP's vast collection of photographic objects and how these works inform the curatorial process, including curatorial approaches from former guest curators Teju Cole and Jan Tichy. Egan will discuss works by Dawoud Bey, Binh Danh, Roy DeCarava, Walker Evans, Vera Lutter, Shi Guorui and Penelope Umbrico.

Event details 
Watch video recording 

Week 10: Latin American Street Photography

May 27, 2020

This print viewing explores the tradition of street photography in Latin America and Latinx communities in the United States. The selection of images encourages viewers to question what is defined as Latinx, how the photographers' cultural identities might influence their perspectives, and the fine line between street photography and ethnography when it comes to capturing marginalized communities. Select artists include Rebel Betty, Dawoud Bey, Jack Delano, and Graciela Iturbide. 

Event details 
Watch video recording (link to come)