BY DANIEL KARIKO
Dear readers, here we go with the first issue of MetaData, a collection of interviews with photography educators and editorials about contemporary photography education. Metadata- The data about data- functions as a collection of information about how the future of photographic art is shaped and influenced by the people who teach it, and the contemporary trends in education.
Enjoy!!!
Alex Emmons grew up in rural upstate New York, near the village of Middleburgh and close to the Catskill Mountains. She received her Bachelor of Arts at Denison University in 1996 and Master of Fine Arts in Photography at Arizona State University in 2005. Residing in remote Eastern Washington, Alex is the Assistant Professor of Photography and Digital imaging at Central Washington University, in Ellensburg, Washington.
DK: You describe yourself as a “lens-based” artist. Does this mean something other than a photographer? What does being a photographer and an artist mean to you in today’s world?
AE: «Well, I have always identified primarily as an artist, this term just simply hits all the creative points of inquiry for me. I use “lens-based” to identify the primary tools I incorporate. I loosely apply it because you never know what tools I am going to pick-up to make work…for example, I have been doing a photogenic cyanotype project for the last three years wherein I lay objects from different backyards on the coated paper and then process it. There are no cameras involved…but the frame is very important to how I structure these records.»
DK: The recent exhibition you curated, “Repercussions: Tides and Time” deals with the artist’s investigations of connections between time and place, and brings together the work of Mark Klett, Rebecca Cummins, Stephen Marc, Angela Franks Wells, and Nate Larson, to name a few. What parallels between the work of these artists and your own art inspired you to create this exhibition? And furthermore, how does this work inform the way you teach photography?
AE: «By investigating artists whose work explores how to represent the formal aspects of time and pictorial space, I felt I could design a curatorial project that foreshadowed how these tools of looking are equally important curatorial concepts; furthermore, this show focused on how artists of multiple media were describing issues of landscape, which is significantly different than a conceptually-based show.
From archived gps-defined tweets to copperplate photogravure, all of the artists I invited were interested in issues of place in some way and were using different tools within their craft to describe it. I was inspired initially by Rebecca Cummins’ and Mark Klett’s time-based research and I wanted to see how this investigation could inform my own practice. I am thinking more about my interests in details of domestic space as a phrenology or possibly forensically.
All of my creative work informs my teaching, if I did not make work I would not teach. I was excited to share this curatorial project at my school and in Seattle, WA so my students could learn from my curatorial decisions. In critique, just yesterday one of my students Jay Neely referenced Jason Urban’s and Leslie Mutchler’s Huis/House project as an example for an advanced student’s discussion. As you can guess, this was a remarkable moment for me as an instructor. Especially since the show was at CWU last October and we are now talking about it again in April.»
© Jason Urban, Desktop Mountaintop, Digital output on cardboard, 70”x 64” x 12”, 2010
DK: Can you describe assignments or projects in the courses you teach, that address these specific issues? (and maybe provide examples of student work)
AE: «There are many projects but for my Art 226 Beginning Digital Photography I have 2 projects: 7 Days and 3’x3‘x60”. For 7 Days, I ask my students to shoot 1 - 3 shots every hour for 7 days and then to select the best edit of 20 images from the potential of 250 final images. And for 3’x3‘x60”, they are required to shoot for one hour in a 3’x3’ cube they define with neon cord on the ground. They enter “the cube” with all their equipment and photograph for a solid 60 minutes without leaving the square of yarn.
For both these projects, I am asking my students to define what is significant to photograph from their everyday to a very specific location/timeline. We are always constructing images even as documentarians, but the manner in which we become familiar with our way of looking is important and I assign these projects with the intention of helping them to become aware of their surroundings and their desires for pictures.»
© Shawn Records, Untitled, from the series Harbor (mural),70”x 64” x 12”,Pigmented inkjet print, 2008
DK: Considering Central Washington University, can you discuss the challenges and your role as a professor of photography in a department where you are the only instructor of this medium? What do you feel today’s role of a small art department is?
AE: «It is challenging because you have got to wear many hats and be informed on many levels from technical practices to conceptual trends. I teach a beginning class for 3 -4 quarters a year as well a different genre of intermediate photography every quarter: Color, Digital & Alternative Processes.
What is interesting to me is that my experiences in undergrad were different with a small liberal arts college than what my students experience now. We had one beginning, intermediate, and then advanced and then if you were still interested you could do independent studies. The most significant aspect of my undergraduate education was learning how to self teach, which employ often in my creative research, incorporate in my preparation for topics I am learning to teach my students (possibly one step ahead of them), and require my student to apply in my class projects.
Small art departments offer resources to places and students, who for whatever reasons are choosing not to go to a big school and city. Our job is to give them the resources and instruction so that they can be creative problem solvers in the disciplines we can foster. I have never felt that you needed the newest shiny camera to make the best picture; however, I do believe we have to many graduate MFA programs out there and I would like to think that I am giving my students the tools and vision to be competitive with students who have had a big school experience. So along with skills, I hope they understand competition but gain confidence from going to a smaller, hands on program.»
DK: Technology played an important role in the development of photography as artistic medium, ever since it’s conception. What are some of the challenges of teaching in constantly changing technological environment?
AE: «It is fairly exciting to think about how ten years ago we were grabbing slides and now I can browse the internet for a newly found artist like Pinar Yolacan from a question posted by a facebook colleague to showing my students the recent posts on the New York Times Lens Blog. Both offer different stimulus and highlight what is happening right now. If I had to shoot the slides and wait for the books etc, I would need to plan differently. In many ways, I am responding to the barrage of images and I hope that my sifting through it all gives my students a resource for finding their own maps within the technology/resources. I guess to get back to your question, it is super challenging but I am trying to respond and stay on top of it the best way I can. Likewise, in many ways, my life comes to me via the internet and interstate here in Ellensburg, so it is a life line for my students and my creative work.
For Photography, we have so many choices and there so many options to “fix” things. The democracy of images and issues of truth are ever present. I would say these are two key issues that we face as instructors and photographers. From the fine art perspective, we have much more leverage when it comes to our decisions and artistic license. Nonetheless, I think our students need to learn more quickly about accountability and the language of photography due to the internet, i.e. flickr and tumblr. Everyone can see everything so fast; I am lucky that I am not interested in figurative work like I was in undergraduate school. I probably would be dealing with more issues with model releases etc. and I have schooled my students to get these releases now every time. Personally, I am just trying to stay on top of releases to photograph property. But these are the days we teach.»
© All copyright remains with photographer Alex Emmons