The Signature Frame: Forging a Photographic Voice of Your Own

Every aspect of photography has a role in style — the camera, the lenses, the filters, the lighting, the composition — but it is the photographer who chooses what components to include and organizes them by positioning himself or herself. That single sentence, from the Dean's guide on photographic style, is the whole curriculum of this course in miniature. You will learn to be the critic of your own photographs — the first step and the most difficult one; you will take the anatomy of style apart choice by choice until nothing about your own frames is invisible to you; you will study the masters without imitating them, and put your forming voice through the crucible of a sustained project; and you will finish by binding that voice into the body of work you began in PHO 409 — consistent enough to be recognized, alive enough to keep growing. To develop your unique style you need to become more creative, learn to visualize for the most possible outcome, broaden your thinking, and ask yourself what you normally do — then find a way to do it differently. This course is that question, asked for eight lessons, until the answer is yours.