Photography & Place

Instructor: Peggy Feerick

Session II: July 14 - July 26, 2011

Travel is always filled with experiences, which enrich our lives.  Our five senses, sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste “take it all in” and add fuel to our travel memory bank. As photographic artists, the camera acts as our visual recorder.  We use it as our tool to expand upon our visual voice combined with our unique individual sensitivity, imagination and understanding of photographic craft.

Using digital SLR cameras as our capturing device, this class will explore our surrounding environment of the Amalfi Coast visually documenting and defining a “sense of place”.  Italy is filled with diverse subject matter from dramatic landscapes, vibrant city life, Etruscan relics, Roman, Medieval and Renaissance architecture and of course, the Amalfi Music Festival!

The course structure is flexible to allow one on one with each student based on the one’s level of proficiency and aesthetic direction.  Our two-week schedule will include lectures, demonstrations, critiques and field trips addressing aesthetic and technical concerns as needed.

During our stay in Italy, our class project will focus on creating a visual response to place. Ask yourself “What is your personal relationship to your environment at home and how do you view your relationship here”? Also, consider philosophical and/or artistic considerations of the landscape – as sublime, as majestic, as spiritual or as abstract as well as approaches towards “mapping”. Upon completion, each student will present his or her personal photographic portfolio defining a “sense of place”.

Student must bring a fully manual SLR digital camera with plenty of memory cards and a laptop computer is also useful for downloading and working on  images.  Students are also encouraged to bring journals and sketchbooks.