In this course, photographer Jaclyn Brown details the concepts and steps behind creating a well-crafted portfolio from a photographic perspective. The workshop begins with asking students about their individual goals for their portfolios. From there, the course gets into details such as defining the structure of your portfolio, looking at prime examples of successful portfolios across a variety of photographic genres, culling your images, sequencing your photographs, and choosing an ideal presentation in both digital and print. Finally, we will view students’ work and Jaclyn will offer personalized critiques for each student’s working portfolio, so they have a clear roadmap to improve their photographic skills and their body of work as a whole.
PROGRAM NOTES
- Maximum class size: 15 participants
- Classes will not be held on Mondays during the school year
- Available to High School Juniors and Seniors, college students, and adults
In this course, designed for students who have little previous experience with digital photography, instructor Jaclyn Brown will help students overcome their fear of using manual settings on a DSLR camera as well as help cell phone camera users to maximize potential quality. Students will be introduced to camera operations, very basic image editing, and other important building blocks. After the workshop, students will be able to utilize their newly acquired skills, learned knowledge of what makes a good photograph, and developed confidence to take better control of their photographs as a whole. All digital cameras are welcome!
PROGRAM NOTES
- Maximum class size: 15 participants
- Classes will not be held on Mondays during the school year
- Available to High School Juniors and Seniors, college students, and adults
The moment of the unveiling of a public monument marks the end of a process. The need for commemoration was felt, an artist engaged to express the idea, and the means found to bring the project to realization. Whatever the intended meaning, once in the public eye an installation acquires its own history. The interpretation of its symbolic expression evolves and the original intent of the monument becomes only one of its meanings. A significant early Virginia monument is Houdon’s mid-1780s marble Washington, with its allusions to the story of Cincinnatus. A long century of monuments referencing classical themes followed, epitomized by the sculptor Crawford’s giant 1850s female warrior with a bird-helmet and pom-pom trim, standing today atop the U.S. Capitol. The monuments that marked the Civil War turned to more of an American-rooted symbolism.
This presentation discusses the evolution of the video game from the 1960s through the late 1990s, with a focus on Atari and Nintendo.
This presentation is designed to create a greater aesthetic understanding and appreciation of sculpture in America. We will delve into sculptural works of art across eras and genres, forms and subject matters, and methods and materials of American sculptors.
Love to visit England, but hate the jet lag? Then let Executive Director, Anne Kenny-Urban, lead you through a tour of “England in America”. From the comfort of your seat, travel from Connecticut to Nevada in search of English architectural treasures, like Agecroft Hall, that have made the journey from the Old World to the New. Hear the incredible stories of why and how the structures were transported to America and what purpose they serve now.
This program explores imperial rituals, court painting, family life, and religion in the Forbidden City, home to 24 of China’s emperors from the Ming (1368-1644) through the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Utilizing selected objects from the Palace Museum, Beijing, in addition to works from VMFA’s permanent collection, this talk explores the visual and cultural landscape established by Chinese imperial patronage in a rapidly globalizing world. This program will also discuss the Forbidden City’s architecture and construction, as well as the influence of Italian painters on the court painting style of the Qing dynasty.
This program will explore the practice of masking as it appears across the vast and culturally diverse Congolese region of Central Africa, where masks function as performance objects, works of art, educational tools, and ritual objects of devotion. Utilizing selected objects from VMFA’s Congo Masks: Masterpieces from Central Africa exhibition, masks will be examined and discussed as representations of the artisans and performers who brought them to life, as well as varied communities, belief systems, and natural resources. The program will also make use of original field photography, which helps to properly contextualize the diversity of masking performances, ecosystems, and cultures found throughout the immense Congo Basin.
“The series of incidents set forth…represent either the most elaborate and ingenious hoax ever played upon the public, or else they constitute an event in human history which may in future appear to have been epoch-making in its character.” This quote by Arthur Conan Doyle could just as easily apply to the spirit photographs of William Mumler as it does to his investigations into the fairy photographs of two English cousins, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Write.
In 1862, while casualties were mounting on the battlefields of the Civil War, William Mumler developed a photo with a ghostly image visible beside the principle subject. This image led Mumler to a new career as a photographer-medium. His mysterious process brought comfort to hundreds of sitters who claimed to recognize the features of deceased loved ones in Mumler’s portraits; but it also brought Mumler before the bench of a New York City judge on charges of fraud.
In 1917, Yorkshire, England, while the carnage of the Great War raged, two young cousins, Elsie Write and Frances Griffiths, appear to capture on film what had never been photographed before, a group of fairies and a gnome. After coming to the attention of author Arthur Conan Doyle, his account in the Strand Magazine of the photos caused a sensation and not entirely welcome attention to the cousins.
This program will explore the similarities between the two cases and the power of art to give physical form to the beliefs of the viewer.
“A total disregard for personal safety and comfort; an owl-like propensity to sit up all night; and a hawky style of vigilance during the day.”
These were the qualities possessed by the Special Artists of the “Bohemian Brigade.”
During the Civil War, the art of photography was still in its infancy. The long exposure times meant that cameras were unable to capture movement and photos could not be reproduced in the newspaper. The job of providing the public with images of battle and camp life fell to brave men known as Special Artists. These newspapermen called themselves the “Bohemian Brigade” and with pencil, crayon, and brush they produced firsthand depictions of the American Iliad. This program will shine light on the adventurous lives of such Special Artists as Winslow Homer, Alfred Waud, and Frank Vizetelly and the methods used to bring their images to the public.