The term ‘social distance’ is a part of speech called a mass noun: a noun that cannot be counted, and that has no plural form, such as health, advice, and air, this now commonly used term was handed down to us at the beginning of the pandemic, causing so much contradiction that we hardly knew what to do with it. Much of the world has struggled to understand and revalue our interactions with one another, often having to go against our nature as social beings. It was left up to us to assess how to engage with others safely and comfortably and to establish the new measurements of our close circles, our “Circumferences of Self’.
In this class, we will study photography in the context of our new forms of interaction, using images as a creative force to express our concerns and interests, and as a tool to understand the fluctuating radius of our social circumstances and the new normal.
Students will create bodies of work that will focus on themselves and the people with which they feel comfortable being around and to whom they have safe access. Close circles of photographic subjects may include family, coworkers, friends, and neighbors. Students may as well create self-portraits, still life, landscape, or conceptual photographs that speak about their particular point of view.
Participants will be given weekly assignments and will complete a separate portfolio for a final critique.
This workshop will be taught online using Zoom.
