Number of schools that teach alt processes

[artonpaper]

I hope I have posted in the correct forum. I was wondering if anyone has ever seen a stat on how many schools, colleges, universities teach alternative processes. By this I mean everything other than traditional darkroom.

Best,
Doug Schwab

 

[cliveh]

I don't know about USA, but in England health & safety rules out quite a few of these processes.

 

[Chris Lange]

I hope I have posted in the correct forum. I was wondering if anyone has ever seen a stat on how many schools, colleges, universities teach alternative processes. By this I mean everything other than traditional darkroom.

Best,
Doug Schwab

My school, Alfred University in Western NY state, has a class exclusively dedicated to alternative process. Students learn Cyanotype, VDB, Pt/Pd, Kallitype, Gum-Bichromate, as well as the use of liquid emulsions like Liquid Light and Black Magic. Most students choose to use a digital original, or scan 35mm/medium format film and then output a larger neg from our Agfa Imagesetter, but a select few (myself included, when I took the class last year) do contact their own 4x5 negs.

I'm graduating from the BFA program there in 2 weeks, with my BFA exhibit 6 days from now! I'm about to head to the darkrooms to keep working on 30x30" b/w prints...

 

[Darkroom317]

My school, Alfred University in Western NY state, has a class exclusively dedicated to alternative process. Students learn Cyanotype, VDB, Pt/Pd, Kallitype, Gum-Bichromate, as well as the use of liquid emulsions like Liquid Light and Black Magic. Most students choose to use a digital original, or scan 35mm/medium format film and then output a larger neg from our Agfa Imagesetter, but a select few (myself included, when I took the class last year) do contact their own 4x5 negs.

I'm graduating from the BFA program there in 2 weeks, with my BFA exhibit 6 days from now! I'm about to head to the darkrooms to keep working on

30x30" b/w prints...

University of Arkansas in Fayetteville is much the same. I am taking the class in the fall. I am a senior BFA student with over a year left.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Guys, you are learning the complete alternative process if you study making gum bichromate, Pt/Pd, VDB and etc, but you are not learning silver gelatin, the most important process of them all as it has been kept secret and is now vanishing! I consider classes without some sort of silver gelatin to be incomplete. Using Liquid Light or other such products is like having the instructor hand you premade VDB or Pt/Pd solutions with no information on what is in there!

PE

 

[AgX]

I don't know of any.

 

[nsurit]

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

 

[winger]

Point Park University has a decent photography program from what I've heard (including alternative and large format) - http://www.pointpark.edu/Academics/Schools/SchoolofCommunication/Programs/Photography

 

[artonpaper]

I would like to congratulate Chris Lange and Darkroom317. I teach photography in Brooklyn College and our BFA students have been having their shows. A lot of hard work and a lot excitement.

At BC we have made Photo 1, an analogue class, the prerequisite to Digital Photography. Getting 35 mm SLR cameras is getting tricky, though. But i think the Photo Engineer is referring to emulsion making, yes? That we haven't tackled yet.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Yes,without emulsion making what is a course in photography. It is just mix and stir!

Send them to a workshop at George Eastman House.

PE

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Down here in Australia we have one of particularly noteworthy repute, Gold Street Studios, based in the sleepy, small farming community in Trentham East, Victoria (Google map it), conveniently a few hundred metres from an historic pub, the Pig & Whistle, dating from the gold rush era. And yes, Ron, silver gelatin is also represented.

Principal Ellie Young guides participants through virtually every alternative process you have heard, and quite a few no doubt you have never heard of! It's a gem of a place and workshops are always in demand and fill quickly.

• Gold Street Studios

 

[nicholai]

In Denmark we employ the concept of the Folk High Schools and our very own APUG'er Gandolfi teaches Alt. Processes at one of those in Vraa. I'm going to attend two of his courses next month!

 

[Whiteymorange]

The Art Institute of Boston, part of Lesley University, has a Masters Program in Photography which includes a lot of alternative process work. Many of the students from that program have been very active buyers of vintage gear at the Photographica shows.

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

What about Japan, nobody reports about them. May be there are books on silver gelatin and ocr and Google translate is ok. Is there any japanese member at forum ?

 

[Photo Engineer]

Chiba University has a full line of courses in photography. There are several other schools in Japan that teach photography up to the PhD level.

PE

 

[Klainmeister]

Santa Fe University of Art and Design (could they come up with a worse name?) has an Alt. process course in the spring. We're actively trying to get more people from that school and the local community to participate in workshops/mentor program here in SFe to teach these techniques.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Virtually all of these courses are qualitative and teach only the barest rudiments of the process of making a photographic material. You might as well just buy a kit and use the stuffer in the box to explain the process.

PE

 

[Robert Liebermann]

University of Alaska is offering a course this summer (2013): Historical and Alternat

hmm, title cut off and can't fix... so:

University of Alaska is offering 3 courses this summer (2013).

1. a 12-week course: JRN (Journalism) F495-F81, Historical and Alternative Photo Processes, CRN 53080 (cross-listed with Art)
May 28-August 16,
Syllabus: Dead Link Removed

Also a couple weekend courses (info copied because not sure info available off-network; general info: Dead Link Removed

2. Cyanotypes - 52687 - ART F040 - F01 Spend the weekend learning how to make your own photo sensitive paper that can be exposed using just the sun! Learn how to print large-scale "digital negatives" of any image, digital or film-based, and print blue-toned images on watercolor paper while enjoying a sunny day. Easy to learn and replicate at home with cheap supplies. [how often do you see the word 'cheap' used by universities these days!!?]

- and -

3. Van Dyke Browns - 52689 - ART F040 - F02 Spend the weekend learning how to make your own photo sensitive brown-toned paper that can be exposed using just the sun! Learn how to print large-scale "digital negatives" of any image, digital or film-based, and print images using this antique technique on watercolor paper while enjoying a sunny day. Easy to learn and replicate at home with inexpensive supplies.

I'm not sure, but as these are non-credit classes, I think they're cheap, ~us$60. Sounds too good to be true, but certainly less than &100-150.

The instructor, Jason Lazarus, is "into it": [ http://m.newsminer.com/news/local_n...cle_ec3400a0-951f-11e2-b577-0019bb30f31a.html ], [ http://lucidperceptions.com/ ]
...
I'm thinking of taking it (rudiment or not, it'll teach me something I don't know much about now with opportunity to ask questions of experienced practitioner - I'd love to learn more but hours in the day, money, and distance to GE House preclude me going full-tilt; but something better than nothing!)
...
Otherwise I'd just waste the money (~$700) on film, or lenses, or food or clothing or rent anyway ...

 

[doughowk]

University of North Florida in Jacksonville offers an Alternative Photographic Processes course that is part of their Art & Design curriculum. The course description is:
"This course will explore alternative ways of imaging with photographic materials. Emphasis will be on historical and contemporary techniques, as well as on the hand-altered photograph and its potential for artistic expression. " Paul Karabinis is the instructor.

 

[removed account4]

i believe RISD teaches a handful of alt-courses, but not emulsion making.
while taking a workshop at GEH would be a wonderful experience, workshops
which last a few days often cost as much as an entire course at a university ( which last 7 to 9 weeks? ).

when i was a college student ( 1980s ) there were no alt process courses, just silver / trad. darkroom
and i taught myself how to make a simple emulsion ... no internet, no workshop, no mentor ...
just a manual from around 1904.
it was great fun, and an eye opener! but i later used liquid emulsions from a local store
which was much more consistent ( to say the least ).

taking a FULL SEMESTER on making an emulsion ... and USING IT would be a great course IMHO ...
as much ALT and FUN as anything else out there ...

 

[artonpaper]

Yes,without emulsion making what is a course in photography. It is just mix and stir!

Send them to a workshop at George Eastman House.

PE

While I think that emulsion making is a highly laudable practice that can give one a much deeper understanding and appreciation of the photographic process, I do not think NOT teaching emulsion making merely mix and stir. First, I feel what goes on prior to and during the moment of initial exposure is paramount. Some of the world's best photographers never even contemplated making emulsions. Those who did their own printing learned to work with the commercially available products and created well crafted prints of excellent photographs. I have known highly skilled photographic technicians whose picturing taking results left much to be desired. I worked with an optical engineer who designed systems for SAC, but whose pictures were boring and sterile.

I find that in any given class there may be a student or two who express interest in the chemistry of analogue photography. Those students are few and far between. Yet many students are producing good work, and small number are turning out wonderful photographs with a very limited understanding how it all works. (Despite my best efforts to stir their curiosity and present at least some theory.) Introducing students to a process such as palladium printing, even if it comes in kit form is an excellent way to spark that curiosity and give them the experience of creating a printing paper with a unique visual quality just by wusing a few simple chemicals. IMHO.

Doug

 

[Photo Engineer]

While I think that emulsion making is a highly laudable practice that can give one a much deeper understanding and appreciation of the photographic process, I do not think NOT teaching emulsion making merely mix and stir. First, I feel what goes on prior to and during the moment of initial exposure is paramount. Some of the world's best photographers never even contemplated making emulsions. Those who did their own printing learned to work with the commercially available products and created well crafted prints of excellent photographs. I have known highly skilled photographic technicians whose picturing taking results left much to be desired. I worked with an optical engineer who designed systems for SAC, but whose pictures were boring and sterile.

I find that in any given class there may be a student or two who express interest in the chemistry of analogue photography. Those students are few and far between. Yet many students are producing good work, and small number are turning out wonderful photographs with a very limited understanding how it all works. (Despite my best efforts to stir their curiosity and present at least some theory.) Introducing students to a process such as palladium printing, even if it comes in kit form is an excellent way to spark that curiosity and give them the experience of creating a printing paper with a unique visual quality just by wusing a few simple chemicals. IMHO.

Doug

IMHO, you are right and wrong at the same time.

Photography, as it exists now, is silver gelatin. The Pt/Pd and other methods are trivial compared to silver gelatin and it is vanishing. It is possible to mix and stir and get a good Cyanotype or Pt/Pd, but to get a good Ag/gelatin is a vanishing art. None of the above address this. You see, your answer falls far short of understanding silver gelatin itself.

PE

 

[doughowk]

As long as a process is still readily available commercially, then its inclusion into the alternative process spectrum is perceived as less critical. When Ilford switches off their last coating line, then you will see a rush to learn silver emulsion coating. Its human nature to not worry until its too late ;-(

 

[cliveh]

IMHO, you are right and wrong at the same time.

Photography, as it exists now, is silver gelatin. The Pt/Pd and other methods are trivial compared to silver gelatin and it is vanishing. It is possible to mix and stir and get a good Cyanotype or Pt/Pd, but to get a good Ag/gelatin is a vanishing art. None of the above address this. You see, your answer falls far short of understanding silver gelatin itself.

PE

I agree with artonpaper about this. I can understand the importance of silver gelatin, but many processes were used prior to it's existance and optimisation, to make very valid and beautiful images.

 

[Augied]

I'm at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. We have (or had until recently) a JanTerm alt. process class. It's four hours a day for two and a half weeks, and covers Pt/Pd and cyanotype. I took it last year, and TAed it this year. Unfortunately this year was the last JanTerm, so the future of the class is unknown. We do have plenty of opportunities for people to study alt. processes independently. This semester, there was one student who did an independent study in Pt/Pd, and there's a senior who just finished her thesis project which included gum, cyanotype, salted paper, and a few others.