With this assignment I am looking for you to demonstrate that you visited one of the museums or galleries specified in the syllabus and spent time looking at the exhibition on display. I want to see evidence that you have carefully looked around the exhibition and read the exhibition labels, texts and other available information.

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Write a paper that reviews the exhibition in its entirety. Discuss all aspects of

the display, including how the photographs are displayed (scale of print,

framing, how images are grouped together, are there other objects in the

space) and organized in the exhibition space; consider what other curatorial

choices have been made; look at the type of labels and other printed texts

that accompany the images and the sort of information that they convey;

consider why this exhibition has been chosen to be presented at the Frost,

PAMM or ArtCenter. 

I want to write about dancing in the absence of pain art center.

University of Miami Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Shannon ARH 207: History of Photography Email: exs899@miami.edu Spring 2019  

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Paper responding to an Exhibition

With this assignment I am looking for you to demonstrate that you visited one of the museums or galleries specified in the syllabus and spent time looking at the exhibition on display. I want to see evidence that you have carefully looked around the exhibition and read the exhibition labels, texts and other available information. Your paper should demonstrate your visual analysis skills, as you will have visually analysed a number of the photographs on display. Your paper should also show that you are able to take the ideas and terms that we have been using in class and apply them to what you see in the gallery. I also expect you to have conducted some additional research, both online and in the library to bolster your paper. Furthermore, your paper must be:

• between 1000-1500 words • properly footnoted • include a bibliography

Please consult the essay writing guidance at the end of this document for more details of what I expect. Please either discuss your idea for your paper with me before you begin, or address one of the following:

• Choose three to four images that you feel convey the central message(s) of the exhibition. Discuss how the photographer/artist has communicated their ideas to the viewer.

• Write a paper that reviews the exhibition in its entirety. Discuss all aspects of

the display, including how the photographs are displayed (scale of print, framing, how images are grouped together, are there other objects in the space) and organized in the exhibition space; consider what other curatorial choices have been made; look at the type of labels and other printed texts that accompany the images and the sort of information that they convey; consider why this exhibition has been chosen to be presented at the Frost, PAMM or ArtCenter.

Please see me, or contact me via email, if you need to discuss your approach or if you have any questions. All essays are due, as printed documents, on Tuesday March 5, 2019, by 8pm at the very latest.

ESSAY GUIDANCE Requirements ** All papers must be typed using Times New Roman or Arial font, double spaced, with standard 1” (inch) margins and must be proofread before submitting. You must use 11-point font. Do NOT add extra spaces between paragraphs.

University of Miami Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Shannon ARH 207: History of Photography Email: exs899@miami.edu Spring 2019  

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** If you plagiarize, fail to include a bibliography or footnote citations when using any outside sources (including textbooks), the paper will be marked down accordingly. If you use the words of another writer without acknowledging that writer it is considered plagiarism. If you use the ideas of another writer without acknowledging that writer it is considered plagiarism. As I read your paper, I will be asking, “How does he or she know this information?” If you plagiarize (ie. cut and paste from an online site, etc.), you will fail the assignment. Advice When you go to the gallery… Take a long, close look at the photographs or video before you turn to the information label! Ask yourself some of the following questions:

• What do I see going on here? Is there a story or narrative? • Where has this imagery come from? (Did the photographer create the image

– take the photograph – or is it an image from another source, like the internet or someone’s personal collection of photographs?)

• What can I glean from the image about the person and/or place depicted? What has the photographer included and/or excluded from the image?

• What strategies do I think the photographer has used to make the sitter and/or place look a certain way?

• What kind of relationship does the sitter appear to have had with the photographer? Is there anything to visually indicate this? (Don’t forget that if the sitter is looking out of the picture, at you, they are in fact looking into the lens of the camera… at the photographer (potentially!)

• What choices did the photographer make to create this photograph? • What might have been the original purpose or context for the creation of this

image or installation? (Publication? To be displayed in a particular place? To celebrate or commemorate something?)

• How are different visual elements (ie: line, tone, light, proportions, scale, composition, framing etc.) used to help lead my eye around the photograph?

• If a video, how has montage, editing, pace, soundtrack and subtitles/text been used to influence my interpretation of the imagery?

• How does this photograph compare to others that we have come across during the course so far?

• How does this image fit within this gallery? What relationships exist with other works nearby? (This is also relevant to video works – how does the ordering of images influence us?)

• If I were the curator, would I have displayed these photographs differently? Why?

University of Miami Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Shannon ARH 207: History of Photography Email: exs899@miami.edu Spring 2019  

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• If I were to tell a friend or family member about this object, installation or video work, what about it would I be sure to discuss?

If you are having a difficult time putting your ideas into words, or are worried about this assignment, you might want to check out some of the videos through this link: https://smarthistory.org/tools-for-understanding-art-2/ When you start to write… Make sure that you read your essay question carefully. Break down the elements of what it is asking you to do. Apply your knowledge. Plan out your answer – consider using bullet points, or drawing a spider diagram/mind map to help structure what you are going to say. Make sure that you include a short introduction at the beginning and a conclusion at the end, a bibliography of all sources that you have consulted, and footnotes where necessary. I expect you to write in full sentences, with correct punctuation and grammar. I will also be looking for correct spelling – use your spell check, and make sure that you are spelling names correctly. (Please, please, please do not misspell the name of the photographer or the people depicted in the photographs! This information is on the wall label, and in books in the library…) This is a formal academic paper (consider it a practice for your final project), so please do not use contractions (eg: don’t, won’t, photo etc.) After you have handed your paper in… I will be considering the following points while grading your work:

• Is there a clear opening sentence that begins the answer? • Does the answer “flow” well – do the ideas expressed by the writer make

sense sequentially? Are the writer’s ideas well developed? (e.g. does the answer read like a series of deepening and connected ideas or is it just a list of statements of fact? I am looking for the former, not the latter.)

• Does the answer clearly connect with the formal elements of the work? (e.g. composition, framing, tonal contrast etc.?)

• Does the answer clearly identify the subject and/or narrative communicated by the work? (Have you researched the photographer and his sitters? Have you consulted books from the library and conducted an in-depth web search? Are these sources included in your bibliography, and have you used footnotes, where necessary?)

• Has the writer made links to other works that we have studied that enable them to contextualize and enrich their discussion of Karsh and his work?

• Does the student summarize and conclude their answer successfully? Is there a “final sentence” within a concluding paragraph that completes the answer satisfactorily, rather than leaving the text mid-thought?

Common mistakes ** Titles of visual works are ALWAYS italicized. (The Kritios Boy is a statue from ancient Greece.) Titles are not put in quotation marks.

University of Miami Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Shannon ARH 207: History of Photography Email: exs899@miami.edu Spring 2019  

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**The first time an artist is mentioned it is proper to utilize both the artist’s first and last name. Any other mention of the artist should be by their last name. Spell the artist’s name correctly! (e.g. Yousuf Karsh is a Canadian photographer. Karsh is not an American.) **You use an apostrophe for possession, not for simple plurals. A common mistake is the use of the words “it is” in a paper (it’s=it is; its=of it (possessive). ** Proper nouns are capitalized, not regular nouns. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is capitalized. The word museum is not. The word Met is. The words paint, paintings, artist, sculpture, marble, etc. are not proper nouns and are not capitalized. ** Watch the verb tense. It is difficult to decide which tense is appropriate when writing about an art historical object. The making of the object happened in the past, yet most of the objects are still tangible in the present. It is also easy to make the mistake of switching between the past and the present when writing an art history paper. Choose a tense and stick with it. Ask for assistance if you are confused. ** Either write in the first person (I, we) or the third person (he/she/it, etc.). Do NOT use second person (you) in an academic paper. ** All punctuation is INSIDE quotation marks: blah blah blah.” NOT: blah blah blah”. ** Indent, block, and single-space quotations longer than three lines (no quotation marks are used for indents).