Narrative Possibilities with Amani Willett
Mining the Archive with David O. Alekhougie
Collage as Documentary Practice
Images are discrete moments frozen in time. How do we take these disparate moments and create larger narratives using multiple photographs?
This workshop examines the use of the archive in contemporary photography. Our cultural memory lives in our archives. Both public and private, the way that archives are made available to us and the way we utilize them provides feedback for how culture progresses.
In this class we will investigate photography’s strengths and limitations for creating narratives and harness that knowledge to create evocative, enigmatic and powerful statements. We will learn how photographic narratives have evolved over time and how the internet era has increased our visual literacy, allowing us to see connections between images that we might have before overlooked. Over our time together we will examine linear narratives, fractured narratives, diaristic narratives and anti-narratives. We will also explore sequencing strategies such as color, image content, gesture, graphic elements and the relationship between image and text.
Over a six week period, David O. Alexhougie will help you build a conceptual framework for understanding and utilizing your archive as image-making material. Some of the questions we will ask are: How does an archive educate? What is the role of privacy in building archives? How does history and the way we understand it affect identity? This class will be split up into three subjects that will have three accompanying assignments:
This class is open to photographers who have long-term projects they would like to take to the next level through dynamic sequencing as well as photographers who simply want to begin to explore the potent ways images can be activated through creative arrangement. Students will construct a sequence of images by referencing lectures and examples discussed in class.
he art of the mixtape—series sequencing and the artist 1. T as a taste-maker 2. Historical fiction—re-enactment as an exercise in narrative story telling 3. The cut edge—deconstructing collage methodologies
Amani Willett (www.amaniwillett.com) is a Brooklyn and Bostonbased photographer whose practice is driven by conceptual ideas surrounding family, history, memory, and the social environment. Working primarily with the book form, his three monographs have been published to widespread critical acclaim. Disquiet (Damiani, 2013) and The Disappearance of Joseph Plummer (Overlapse, 2017) and A Parallel Road (Overlapse 2020) were selected by Photo-Eye as “best books” of the year and have been highlighted in over 70 publications. Amani completed an MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts, NY in 2012 and a BA from Wesleyan University in 1997. In addition to his artistic practice, Amani is an Assistant Professor of Photography at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston.
Having completed this assignments, students will walk away with a greater understanding of how archives can impact their artistic approach to photography. David Alekhuogie (www.davidalekhuogie.com) received his MFA from Yale University and post-bac BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work was included in Companion Pieces, the 2020 iteration of MoMA’s biannual New Photography exhibition. In 2019, he was the recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant. With solo exhibitions across the nation, David’s work has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Time Magazine, Timeout, Chicago, Vice, and the Los Angeles Times.
Four Sessions
Six Sessions
Date: Saturdays and Sundays, July 10-18, 9 am-12 pm PST
Date: Saturdays, July 10-August 14, 10:30 am-12:30 pm PST
Enrollment limit: 12 students
Enrollment limit: 15 students
Skill/Experience level: Adobe In-Design experience is helpful but not required.
Skill/Experience level: Open to all levels Tuition: $575
Tuition: $675 Location: Online
Location: Online
13 w w w.lacphoto.org
323.464.0909
SPECIAL GUESTS / MASTER PHOTOGR APHERS
© David O. Alexhougie
© Amani Willett
