As a liberal arts and sciences institution, Franklin University Switzerland's education explores many programs and disciplines, including natural and social sciences, humanities, and creative arts. The Division of Arts and Cultures (DAC) is the perfect place to expand on the art and literature curricula, including courses like Art History and Visual Culture, Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, Visual Communications Arts, languages, and other creative industries. One which is especially grounded on creativity, nuanced analysis, and expression is the class on "Digital Photography", led by Division Co-Chair Johanna Fassl.
"Digital Photography" investigates the particularities of portrait, fashion, city, architecture, documentary, location, street photography and more, concentrating on two areas specifically: the Core Skill Exercises, including photographic design, image capture, manipulation using digital imaging technology; and Project Design, conceiving and seeing a number of diverse photography projects through to completion. Throughout the course, equal emphasis is placed on both technical skills and the artistic value of photography. Students in this class engage in documenting and capturing specific subjects in different locations while learning how to interpret the perceptible. Photographers work DSRL or mirrorless cameras, analog and polaroid cameras, the smartphone to document and explore specific subjects in their projects while also obtaining a deeper understanding of their inner selves through the eye of the camera and the engagement with their photographs in post-production.
With its aesthetic mandate, the "Digital Photography" class perfectly represents the Visual Communication Arts major, as a course that studies theoretical and technical issues about photography and then puts those teachings into practice in exercises and semester projects, where the experiential learning component comes to life. As a result, students developed a twofold perspective that prepares them to both do and understand photography, while learning the theories and methodologies pertaining to it.
"This was an amazing course that allowed me to re-engage and revisit my old photography passion. What I liked best about it all was the creative freedom that we had with our photographs - because of this, each student was able to find a deeply artistic sense within themselves by the end of the course" comments Christina Jisto '22. Other students also commented "love this class because it really helped me grow, not only as a photographer but a person too" and "the best part about this class was how much I truly learned about my camera and how to use a camera in general. Before this class, I was afraid to touch my manual setting on my camera and now I tend to play around with it."
Follow and catch a glimpse of students' photographic talents and skills on Franklin's Instagram channel. First off some incredible city views of the cities of Paris and Lugano by Mateo Seguro Rivadeneyra '22.