The underlying premise here holds photography is a fully meaning-making language system with a fundamental, universal grammar and multiple dialects. In this framework, a “language” is defined as a system in which meaning is produced through structured relationships between elements under identifiable constraints.

The 30-credit hour program detailed here is designed around photography as a contemporary, meaning-making language rather than a tool-based craft and is premised on students using what is the dominant contemporary photographic apparatus, specifically their smartphone camera and nothing else — no handles, grips, accessory lenses, or manufacturer ‘photo kits’. Instruction regarding camera use is dispensed with early in each class.

In each class students are given their assignment for the semester during the first meeting. In general, they are expected to develop a semester-long project within that assignment. A student can successfully complete one assignment and move on but to become truly conversant with the intended learning, the student must execute the assignment within the given dialect over an extended period of time. Bluntly, a student can successfully complete a single assignment, often with little difficulty, but as with any language, true fluency emerges only through repetition, variation, and sustained engagement.

Evaluation is always a concern in a program with long term assignments. All work submitted is evaluated through five analytical lenses: semantics (what was selected?), syntax (how are elements related?), grammar (how was the image shaped?), dialect (under what conditions does meaning emerge?) and context (where does the image live within that dialect?). It is expected students will use these five lenses when developing projects and taking the photographs to complete their projects.

All of the classes in this program are credit/no credit. An exception is made for the History of Photography requirement which would follow a school’s standard process for evaluation and grading.

As this program is functionally more about mentorship, evaluation is an ongoing process where both instructor and student have input and the primary metric is growth over the semester as shown in submitted work. It is acknowledged that class sizes would need to be capped to preserve the mentorship model.

Based on a 14 week semester, a student’s project concludes in the 12th week and is submitted for final evaluation. By the end of the 14th week both the student and instructor write a narrative describing the goals of the learning, how those goals were met, how well those goals were met and what further learning the student might pursue after the class concludes. Identifying continued learning is an essential evaluative component as photography is a lifetime pursuit for many.

Students will be expected to submit work weekly as the basis for ongoing mentorship and will be expected to participate in weekly mentoring sessions during the regularly scheduled class time. This mentoring is intended to give the student direction and feedback from the instructor leading to the submission of a coherent body of work within the selected context(s). Students will also receive feedback from other class members forming a “community of workers” (in Weston’s sense - peers engaged in parallel, serious practice rather than casual critique ). While the intent is for the program to be on-campus/in person, with sufficient resources it could be provided online.

A note on cameras and instruction - The smartphone is not used here as a convenience, but as a standardized photography system that handles the myriad of traditional technical decisions, allowing instruction to focus on meaning rather than mechanical control. Its purpose is not technical mastery but calibration; establishing a shared, minimal level of operational understanding so that all students can engage the semester-long assignments on equal footing.

Once this baseline is established, the camera recedes from the foreground of instruction. The focus of the program is not on how the camera functions, but on understanding how photographs function as a communicative, meaning-making language developed through sustained practice, repetition, variation, and critique.

All submitted work must be web-safe, camera-native JPEG (or WebP where applicable) files with intact EXIF data. RAW, ProRAW, or other RAW formats are not permitted, as this program is concerned with understanding photography as a meaning-making language. Students must work with their camera’s fully resolved output rather than intermediate data representations. This ensures meaning is constructed at the moment of image formation and not deferred to post-processing. Allowing deferred construction through RAW processing shifts meaning-making out of the act of photography and into post-production, which this program explicitly excludes.

The individual classes are described below (all are based on a 14 week semester). Class meetings are designed to be single weekly “time blocks” of three hours with no separate “lab hours” (as there used to be with the traditional lecture class and wet darkroom hours):

Semester 1: Computational photography (3 hours – 3 hours total)

Define photography as meaning-making language

Discuss semantics (object selection), apprehensive syntax, connotations for both the photographer / reader

Discuss grammar

Discuss dialects

Discuss contexts

Briefly describe smartphone camera computational process

Briefly describe camera operations IN TERMS OF GRAMMAR

- brief discussion of night mode

- brief discussion of portrait mode

Discussion of storytelling.

Discuss nature of assignments – assignments are long term (semester long) and storytelling based. They are defined in terms of dialect but unstructured in terms of context. There are scheduled, periodic (weekly) checks.

Evaluation – both student and instructor have input, courses are credit / no credit

Assignment – photograph our campus. Note that this assignment (and this assignment only) is more specified than those in the rest of the coursework and is specifically designed to acclimate students to semester-long work.

Semester 2: Spatial Continuity Dialect • (3 hours – 6 hours total)

Brief review of Computational Photography

Discussion of specific dialect as marked by:

• depth across planes

• continuity of detail

• viewer as observer

• environment dominance

- Meaning is carried primarily through spatial relationships across the frame, with continuity across depth reinforcing coherence.

- This dialect can include landscape photography, cityscape photography, seascape photography, etc.

Assignment: photograph within various contexts

Evaluation – both student and instructor have input, courses are credit / no credit

Semester 3: Subject-Centric Dialect • (3 hours – 9 hours total)

Brief review of Computational Photography

Discussion of specific dialect as marked by:

• focus collapse

• background suppression

• identity shaping

• integrating viewer / subject relationship

- Meaning is carried primarily through a dominant subject and its relation to the viewer.

-This dialect can include portrait photography, wedding photography, lifestyle photography, product photography, etc.

Assignment: photograph within various contexts

Evaluation – both student and instructor have input, courses are credit / no credit

Semester 4: Controlled Isolation Dialect • (3 hours – 12 hours total)

Brief review of Computational Photography

Discussion of specific dialect as marked by:

• ambiguity minimized

• full legibility

• context stripped -or- fully constructed environment

• signal clarity

- Meaning is carried through controlled, noise-reduced relationships, where ambiguity is minimized. .

- This dialect can include studio photography (portrait or product), conceptual photography, fine art photography, experimental photography, etc.

Assignment: photograph within various contexts

Evaluation – both student and instructor have input, courses are credit / no credit

Semester 5: Situational / Contingent Dialect • (3 hours – 15 hours total)

Brief review of Computational Photography

Discussion of specific dialect as marked by:

• layered interactions

• interruptions

• partial information

• opportunistic framing

- Meaning emerges from contingent, often uncontrolled relationships unfolding in real time.

- This dialect can include street photography, documentary photography, editorial photography, concert photography, etc.

Assignment: photograph within various contexts

Evaluation – both student and instructor have input, courses are credit / no credit

Semester 6: Temporal Peak Dialect • (3 hours – 18 hours total)

Brief review of Computational Photography

Discussion of specific dialect as marked by:

• decisive moment

• motion control

• anticipatory framing

• action dominance

- Meaning is carried by arresting action at its peak in real time often in a natural setting where that action occurs.

- This dialect can include sports photography, dance photography, event photography, or any setting in which there is an organized or unorganized action pending.

Assignment: photograph within various contexts

Evaluation – both student and instructor have input, courses are credit / no credit

History of Photography (3 hours – 21 hours total)

Instruction and evaluation per institutional standards and as offered in the regular course catalog but prior to beginning Capstone work.

Semester 7: Capstone preparation (3 hours – 24 hours total)

This course is designed to assist students prepare for their capstone project which includes

• defining the project

• developing the project storyline

• developing the production outline

• arranging for any necessary resources

• arranging any necessary permissions and developing appropriate releases

• developing at least a tentative production schedule

Evaluation – both student and instructor have input, courses are credit / no credit

Semester 8: Capstone project (6 hours – 30 hours total)

The capstone project represents a sustained, self-directed body of work demonstrating fluency across one or more dialects and a clear command of photographic meaning-making.

Evaluation – both student and instructor have input, courses are credit / no credit –

possible college publishing

Computational photography is pre-req for all dialect courses; computational photography and all dialect courses are pre-reqs for capstone prep and capstone prep is pre-req for the capstone project.