Photography class offers alternative

By David Miller, Staff Writer

For those students with a creative streak, the college offers a unique photography class that doesn’t involve a camera.

Adjunct professor Konrad Eek will teach Alternative Photographic Processes this summer.

Eek said he teaches three historic methods of making images, which are: Cyano-type, Van Dyke and Gum-Bichromate.

Eek said Cyanotype is a process in which a negative of an image is placed on watercolor paper that has been covered with a liquid emulsion, thus creating a blueprint-type version of the image.

Digital techniques are required to make the image larger than the negative.

“We use Photoshop, a computer-based photo manipulation program, to create the negatives so we don’t have size limitations,” Eek said.

Van Dyke is the next process students will learn in the class, he said.

“Van Dyke is a silver nitrate emulsion, which creates a brown print with copper tones to it.”

The final process students will learn is referred to as Gum-Bichromate.

The Gum-Bichromate process involves sensitizing watercolor pigments but has several other possibilities as well.

“The interesting thing with Gum-Bichromate … you can do, essentially, black-and-white pigments, watercolor pigments, multiple colors and multiple layers,” Eek said.

He said paintings or drawings also could be used to make prints.

Six people have enrolled in the class, which will take place from 5:30 to 8 p.m., Monday and Wednesday beginning June 4, in Room 2L7 on the second floor of the Main Building.

In addition to the creative aspect, another plus is students get to spend time outdoors as part of the class, Eek said.

“The sun’s a light source for all these emulsions, so we go outside to make our exposures.”

“So, in the summertime, it’s not like you’re cooped up in a classroom all night long.”

There also will be standard photography courses taught over the summer.

Charles Rushton will teach Digital Photography, and Hugh Scott and Alyssa Page will teach separate Black and White Photography I courses.

In the Digital Photography course, Graphic Communications Professor Randy Anderson said students will learn how to use a digital camera and how to how enhance pictures in Photoshop.

In addition to learning the functions of the camera, students will learn how to process and develop film in the Black-and-White Photography course.

The cost for materials in the Black-and-White Photography course rivals the cost of the course itself.

“At a minimum, the cost will probably be $100 for the film classes,” Anderson said.

He said the digital photography course is less expensive because students don’t have film or developing materials to buy.

Anderson said students could lease a digital camera from the school for $25 a semester. Students in Black-and-White Photography must provide their own cameras.

For more information on the Alternative Photographic Processes class, contact Eek at Eekphoto @sbcglobal.net, or call his studio at 405-321-6552.

For more information on the digital and black and white photography courses, contact Anderson at 405-682-1611, ext. 7218.

Staff Writer David Miller can be reached at StaffWriter3@occc.edu.

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