Assignment: Monochrome! Analysis, Technique, and Exercises in B&W
Black-and-white photography is utterly fluid — it can appear as a soft-toned airbrush drawing or as a dense and gritty pen-and-ink scratching, depending upon exposure, lighting, and post-processing techniques. In this class we will be deconstructing the work of a range of monochromatic photographers from the sublime to the hedonistic in order to understand what techniques the artists employed. You will then go out and experiment to make new photographs that embrace these different looks, using our analysis and technical recipe. Kai envisions this class as a mash-up between his Black and White Refined and Shake Up! courses.
Kai McBride is a photographer, musician, teacher, and avid cyclist who recently uprooted from Brooklyn to sunny Santa Fe, New Mexico. He spent the last ten years teaching photography and managing the photo facilities at Columbia University, his alma mater, where he received an MFA in 2008.
Born on the island of Kauai in 1972, by his 18th birthday Kai had lived in California, Oregon, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Texas, Oahu, North Carolina, and Massachusetts. He sharpened his powers of observation while adjusting to life between suburban ranch-style homes, cabins with no running water, and a 20-foot teepee in the field of a commune.
His photographs have been exhibited in museum and gallery exhibitions, and are held in public and private collections. His first monograph, About Face: Picturing Tampa, was published by SPQR Editions in Fall 2016.
Kai teaches black and white photography, photobooks, and more for StrudelmediaLive.
kaimcbride.com
