We will start with DPH 1013 – History of Photography and Art (because it is the course taught by me, the blog author). Most Photography programs in the province have a history of photography course. It is important for aspiring photographers to know a bit about how the craft started, and who the early photography giants were. At Lambton, this is the first third of a course in the first term.
But photographers also rely on more than 1000 years of art history, since painting and other types of art were the means of recording the world before photography was perfected. Thus our course delves into Art History, concentrating on painting from the early middle ages to today.
But unlike a university Art History course, DPH-1013 does not expect students to memorize names of artists and dates they worked like a university course might. Instead the art is related directly to photography. Students look at a (picture of a) painting, and try to relate it to photography. Most of the assessments in the course are not tests – they are photographic projects, leading up to a final project where students submit a photo inspired by a famous work of art.
There is no final exam in this course. The goal is not to make students memorize facts, but to expose them to many of the more famous artists of the past millennium, so they can recognize famous paintings and styles of art. Our hope is that they might emulate the posing of Da Vinci or the lighting of Rembrandt or the sheer inventiveness of Dali when they start working in the field as full time professional photographers.
