Paper #1 and Annotated Bibliography #6

This is a reminder that by midnight Friday of this week, I am expecting you to email Paper #1 to me: sulmer@wcupa.edu

For Paper #1, you are to select and complete one of the following prompts (or if you are passionate about another idea, please feel free to email me and propose your own prompt): A. Identify and discuss how African and African American photography is both a product of and responds to historical events and movements (3 pages, informal, free-write, no citations needed). B. Expand any one of your already completed annotated bibliographies (or the upcoming Weems bibliography; see Annotated Bibliography #6 below) into a 3 page free-write. (I expect you to do additional research on the photograph/photographer, etc..., should you select this option.)

Annotated Bibliography #6 is due by midnight Monday Oct 19. In this annotated bibliography you will be writing about a series of photographs by Carrie Mae Weems. While Fosso provided us with a glimpse of contemporary African art photography, Weems officially plunges us into the appreciation of African American contemporary art photography. You can find Weems' work online, or the link my photographs of her work is: https://goo.gl/photos/k26An7dumiTvDKBv6

Please expect the next emailed delivery of my comments on and grades of your work to arrive the week of October 19. I will be responding with suggestions about research papers for each of you. Remember that the deadline for the research paper proposal is fast approaching. Feel free to take a look at upcoming photographers' work and begin to think broadly, creatively, and grandiosely. (You can find these photographers named in the schedule section of the syllabus.) I will assist you in revising your research paper proposals, so it is best if you really go out on a limb and try to identify what it is that really triggers you about a photograph or photographer or series of work, or why a particular photograph or set of photographs haunts or challenges you, and/or makes you want to take action. Figure out your own relation to the photograph(s)/photographer(s) whose work you wish to research; the more able you are to articulate why it is that these images or these artists speak to you, the more energy you will bring to writing your paper, and the more you will learn about something that will move and transform you. (I'm referring here to bell hooks' language...)