Graduation Project Topics in Photography
Photography literally means "writing with light" and photographers completing final graduation projects should keep this simple, but vital, definition in mind. Graduation project topics may range from documentary work to abstract, fine art prints. Whichever topic a student selects, the goal of the project should be to capture the reality, or unreality, of her world.
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Photo Essay
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A photo essay is a series of photographs shot to display a theme, event or time line. While all the shots can vary in subject and tone, each photography must have a similar quality to the ones preceding it, for instance that they are all black and white, grainy or smooth --- fast or slow speed film --- or all shot with the same, or similar, aperture settings. For your graduation project, you could shoot an essay of 10 to 20 photographs covering a day-in-your-life or a family member's life, a series of images that make up a "dream landscape," or a set of images to show the character of the town or city where you live.
Mixed-Media
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In mixed-media art, an artists combines other visual art forms into one piece of art. For example, an artist may use pen drawings, chalk, pencil, sewn cloth, paint and a photographed portraits in a single project. Use photographs you have taken, in combination with one or more art mediums. For example, for a graduation project an artist may make a collection of landscape photographs, set them on a canvas, and paint over sections of the collage, drawing out colors and shapes through the colors and strokes he makes. Another artist may sew photographs into pieces of clothing and make an art installation out of the photographs as laundry.
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Portraiture
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A good portrait captures an individual's essence. Taking portraits is a traditional craft, but studying an individual's facial features and expressions is almost always interesting, if the photographer values her subject. Choose a collection of people you would like to photograph up close. These could be members of your family, a group of friends, residents at an elderly home, nurses in a public hospital or subway train conductors. Either way, these are people who you want to see up close and show their faces to the world, or at least your graduating class. To start, view portraits by Paul Strand and Richard Avedon for inspiration.
Street Photography
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Street photography, a form of documentary photography, captures the life of the streets in a city or town on film. Photographers shoot urban scenes, tracing night-life as a bystander or photograph the passing cars, tall buildings and activities of daily life as it happens in the city center. As an end of the year graduation project, a street photography may include going out one night with the mission only to photograph and not partake in the action. It is an eye-opening experience how much you can observe by silently observing. See photojournalist photos by Robert Capa and Weegee (Arthur Fellig) for guidance.
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References
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