Photography in Art and Design Education
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Photography in Art and Design Education Alan Kay Stockwell College of Education, Bromley, Kent It is only during the last few years, since the comment or social use, or even making 97 advent of larger schools with more staff and new images. specialist equipped rooms that photography Visual concepts - Shape, form, texture, has been seriously considered as an integral tone, colour, with the introduction of part of the secondary school curriculum in other ideas of line, transparency, scale, art arid design. etc. When any practical work in photography has been taught in schools, it has often been Within the context of the departmel)ts in the form of a photographic or camera operating in either this way, or perhaps with club, generally taking place after school a more loosely struct"ured syllabus, photo- hours and in many cases organised and graphy has a firm place. It uses the light- supervised within one of the science areasof sensitive surface and the unique way in the school. In some instances the values of which it responds to quantities of light as a these clubs have been the traditional values part of the two dimensional media area, the of the amateur photographic clubs with photographic work can have many inten- considerable emphasis placed on the equ ip- tions apart from its record ing aspect, and ment, the skills and the scientific aspect of black and white photography is particularly the subject. The value of photography as an concerned with tone as an art concept. A art form in its own right has often been particular aspect of photography is that it neglected apart from brief discussions on uses the idea of negative and positive images the pictorial quality of the prints. as an intrinsic part of the process. A part of art is the selection and rejection In terms of both cost and the time that of images and the manipulation of these it takes to produce any worthwhile result in materials and methods. If this statement is terms of photographic printing, it is unlikely true then photography must have a claim to that most schools would be able to do any- be represented as a part of the body of thing other than a small amount of experi- knowledge embraced by the term art and mental colour photography. The materials design, but in too many casesnot only has and equipment are expensive to buy, the equipment and technique been over-valued, basic chemicals are expensive and difficult but the only use of photography in the to use in the working conditions of a school school has been that of a recording device. darkroom, and the time taken to produce Many art and design departments in satisfactory colour print is out of scale to schools are now beginning to evaluate and the normal school double period, or even a investigate, as part of their syllabus, the fine whole morning or afternoon session. Mono- art and the appl ied art attitude, that is chrome photography, using relatively cheap, problem-solving approaches in which either easily obtainable and simple to use materials the artist sets himself the problem, or he is is a very reasonable proposition in terms of set a problem as a design brief, this is, of cost, resources required and the period of course, in addition to the limitations of the time within which the averageart and design media in which he chooses to work. department works. In addition to this, some art and design departments are structuring their courses so that students have experiences of art and I believe that students should be introduced design work in terms of: to the photographic medium in a direct way with as little as possible of the 'craft Media - two, three and four dimensional. mystique' being emphasised at the begin- Intention - Illustration recording, social ning. The initial experience should be one of the uniqueness of the response of the photo- which photography has been introduced, graphic material to light, together with an and there is no doubt that there is the possi- 98 introduction to the positive/negative/positive bility of fascinating images being produced process used in monochrome photography.' in this way. Even older children in the The manipulation of even the simplest of school are surprised to see the images which cameras seems to introduce a technical can be created by placing a hand or a bunch barrier to these initial experiences and inter- of keys on the photographic paper, while feres with the immediate response to the translucent objects such as leaves or even the media. nylon reel of a developing tank acquire a The first experience of photography can quality of their own. even be accomplished without the aid of a The main disadvantage of the photogram darkroom. Ordinary photography bromide is that it is essentially a 'one-off' process. paper can be brought into daylight con- Once the objects have been exposed to light ditions, drawn or painted with diluted they necessarily have to be moved in order developer with the darkening process that the development of the paper can take observed as it happens, and the paper then place. fixed in the usual fixing bath. If this process A more useful extension of the photo- can take place under safe-light conditions gram is what used to be called the 'cliche in the darkroom, paintings using a range of verre' - literally drawing on a glass plate - half-tones and full black and white become or what might now be named a hand-made possible. negative. Using cheap tracing on grease-proof The placing of opaque and translucent paper, images can be drawn, coloured trans- objects under darkroom conditions between lucent or opaque materials can be stuck on the light source and the printing paper - the to make a negative which can be printed in photogram - has been a traditional way in contact with the photographic printing A print from a hand-made negative using stuck on materials and drawn images- Brenda Howarth 99 A pictorial photograph in which some experimental work of printing on various paper grades, dodging and burning in wasdone prior to the final print.- Bev Sage paper. A range of materials can be used for cess is given - more s_othan when using the 100 this, felt pens, pencils, wax crayon, coloured photog ram, since the original image is avail- inks, coloured adhesive transparent material, able for inspection and comparison. and a range of drawing techniques can be Many possibilities occur using this method used including shading, wax resists or even of introduction to photography. The oppor- simple graffito (or scratching) methods. If tunity to make a representational drawing the hand-made negative is made in the same in negative form presents a stimulating proportion as the printing paper, usually 'challenge to some older children, the use of stocked (10" x 8") - i.e. 8" x 5" or 5" x resists and scratches become reversed, and 4", not only economies in the use of the use of coloured materials presents the materials, but other possibilities (described student with an immediate experience of the later), occur. The hand-made negative is ex- response of the paper to coloured light - posed. generally under a sheet of glass for bromide paper is orthochromatic and is firm contact with the photographic paper, sensitive to blue light but insensitive to under a light source. It is then developed yellows and reds. The experience of working and fixed in the usual way. with colour to produce a black and white When students examine this print from negative could lead to a discussion of pan- their hand-made negative a direct experience chromatic films and their sensitivity to the of the negative/positive photographic pro- visible spectrum of colour in their relative A print using Kodalith Ortho Film in which the design has been achieved by multiple exposure of the negative image on to the paper - Ingrid Bugge. tones, the necessity to develop film in total share the same focussing mechanism, so 101 darkness (or with a weak green safelightl, that the focus is seen in the viewfinder. and the use of orange or yellow/green safe- The single lens reflex, in which the object is lights for the printing process. both viewed and exposes the film through The introduction to the photographic the same lens. process by using hand-made negatives also has the advantage that some of the creative Both the viewfinder and the twin lens darkroom processes of double printing, reflex suffer from the disadvantage of multiple printing, serialisation, reverse print- parallax, that is the viewfinder does not ing and even repeat pattern making can be show quite the same view of the object as is carried out with either the original hand- registered on the film. This problem can be- made negative, or a combination of two or come quite a major difficulty when working more negatives, or with specially produced with moderate or extreme close-up work. The negatives that have some of these techniques twin lens reflex also presents a viewfinder in mind. Parts of the hand-made negatives image that is laterally reversed, and this can can be placed in the negative carrier of the present problems particularly for sports and enlarger and be considerably increased in action photography. size and printed on to the paper. The single lens reflex offers a viewfinder It is only after a thorough experience of image as seen through the exposing lens. The the hand-made negative and its associated image is not reversed, and, when interchange- darkroom techniques, including the produc- able lenses of differing focal lengths are used tion of test strips, the use of the aperture on the camera the viewed image is exactly as control of the enlarging lens, and the chemi- will be registered on the film.