Extra Credit

Extra CreditExtra Credit Options may be submitted at any point of the course, until the final exam. All extra credit papers should be 200 – 300 words long

Choose one option 

Option 1. Watch and respond to Alfred Hitchcock’s film Rear Window, 1954

DVD available in the library: Alfred Hitchcock, the masterpiece collection (Multimedia (DVD 2619)

Watch the film. Answer the following question: How is the idea of voyeurism expressed in the film? Think about the actions of the main character: what does he do? How does the set of the film emphasize the character’s voyeurism?

Option 2. Write a short analysis of a photograph by an unknown photographer from the MoMa archives.

https://www.moma.org/collection/works?locale=en&utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=unknown&classifications=7&date_begin=Pre-1850&date_end=2018&include_uncataloged_works=1

These photographs are by unknown authors. Why where they taken? Write a short speculative essay on a photograph that you find strange or uncanny. What is unusual about this image and why?

Option 3. Produce your own image in the style of a specific photographer from the course. Write a short paper describing your inspiration for the image you produced: what photographer you chose to emulate and why. Describe your process: what worked and what did not?

Option 4. Produce a creative response to any image from the course. This can take the form of a personal letter, a poetic response, a speculative history for the image, or a drawing.

Option 5. Read and respond to Talbot’s essay ‘ The Pencil of Nature’.

Review the University of Glasgow’s website on the publication of Talbot’s The Pencil of Nature at http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/feb2007.html and write a 250-word essay that addresses the importance of this publication.

In addition, select one photograph to examine carefully and write about what you see and what the photograph makes you think about. Some points of consideration may include: what does the image tell you about Talbot? does the technical quality make it a successful photograph or a poor one? why does it interest you?

Option 6. Beyond the Rabbit Hole: The Photographs of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll

First: Review the web exhibition of Dodgson’s photographs  at the University of Texas at Austin (home to an important photography collection).              http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/carroll/

Then: Read a review by the art critic Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times. The review discusses a 2003 exhibit of Dodgson’s photographs at the International Center of Photography (ICP)

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/06/arts/design/06KIMM.html?pagewa nted=all

Kimmelman summarizes the controversies over Dodgson’s photography and reveals the attempt to recover these photographs via the social-historical context of Victorian culture. When you first looked at the web exhibition, did Kimmelman’s references to the contentious aspects of Dodgson’s photographs cross your mind? Do these photographs appear ambiguous to you? In a 500- word essay critique Kimmelman’s review in relation to the web exhibition.

Option 7. The Artist’s Voice: Issues in Contemporary Photography – view and review interviews with contemporary photographers,

Carrie Mae Weems:

https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/media/icp-spotlights-carrie-mae-weems-in-conversation-with-isolde-brielmaier

Watch the videos and pay attention to the artists’ views and their individual approaches to photography. What are the photographers’ approaches to the medium? Are there similarities or differences? Write a 300-word essay that highlights the key points of the photographer’s presentation.