David Taylor earned an MFA from the University of Oregon and a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University. His photographs, multimedia installations, and artist’s books have been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions at venues that include the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois; and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut. Taylor’s work is in the permanent collections of, Fidelity Investments, Boston; and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Palace of the Governors/New Mexico History Museum among others. The New Yorker Magazine Online, The Los Angeles Times, Orion Magazine, PREFIX PHOTO, and the Mexico/Latin America Edition of Esquire Magazine have all featured his images. Taylor has completed recent major commissions for artwork that is installed in the U.S. Border Patrol Station in Van Horn, Texas and the United States Federal Courthouse in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Taylor’s ongoing examination of the U.S. Mexico border was supported by a 2008 Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and a monograph of Working the Line has just been released by Radius Books
Thinking Through Pictures
The representational capacity of the photograph is its greatest strength, yet it can also present one of the medium’s biggest challenges. Since photographic representation is so frequently concerned with the recording of events and things, images often function simply as illustrative documents. However, the most enduring images are not just about the thing pictured but are, in fact, about larger ideas and concepts. This one-week workshop addresses strategies for content generation with the goal of making both individual pictures and long-term projects that move beyond the illustrative and literal.
Course content emphasizes individual student projects with daily research and shooting assignments. Discussions are based on the examination of a number of historic and contemporary projects that serve as case studies. Topics and issues include: the role of metaphor and symbolic meaning, document versus art, the implications of a technical approach, and effective/appropriate final presentation.
Students should have a well-developed technical foundation and may produce work digitally or with light-sensitive materials.
Instructors
