Thursday, December 27, 2012

GLA 625 - The History of Photography

Boulevard du Temple, Paris. 1838. Daguerreotype
One of the courses with which I have a love/hate relationship is the History of Photography. I love it for all the meaningful information on the history of the medium that I have learnt about, and I hate it for the amount of reading, research and writing I had to do. Come to think of it I dont think I would have attained the earlier without the later. Like any art history course, this course too is theoritical (and I am no authority on this. I know didlysquat about art, history or art history for that matter), but what make it such an awesome course is the Instructor - Lisa Levine (website) - an outstanding educator and fine art photographer. Should you be lucky enough to take this class under her, you would truly appreciate the evolution of medium, and learn to question and critically analyse photographs in the context of what has come before it.

The description of the course on the Academy's website reads "This course explores the history of photography and the impact of photography on the visual arts. The major photographic movements and genres throughout the history of photography will be defined and studied in theoretical and applied terms."

Monday, December 3, 2012

China Town

One of the many shops in China Town selling
chinese statues.
One of the largest and oldest chinese community in Northern America is located in the heart of downtown San Francisco.