The Uncanny Landscape

By DAVID DAY

del.ico.us | digg it! | reddit!

print | email | 0 Comments

You and your boyfriend are out at a picnic, it's a beautiful day. You take your camera and head out to the natural world and shoot some meadows, maybe a tree or two. He fends off the ants. You capture some fireflies glowing majestically underneath an oak grove and the sun breaking perfectly through the heavenly clouds. He warms up the Prius. Then it's off to CVS with your film, your camera and your expectations. An hour later you pop open the folder and voilá: dog poop. It happens. Check out this picture though. It's beautiful. You want to take pictures like that? Barbara Bosworth can teach you how to do it ... for a price. She's won numerous awards and shown all across the country, including an upcoming solo show at the Phoenix Art Museum, so you know she's got chops. The cost of the class includes a 12-hour weekend symposium on how to capture the moment, right down to the nuances of place, time and temperature. Also a professor at MassArt for over 20 years, Bosworth will then take the entire class, brown-bag style, to that very same meadow in Carlisle during the magic hour and personally see to it you capture the moment right. Then when the CVS clerk asks "Why are you crying?" you can say, "I took this!"

[The Uncanny Landscape. Sat-Sun 7.12.08-7.13.08, Thu 7.17.08 5:30pm-8:30pm/$250 members/$295 non-members. The Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, 832 Comm. Ave., Boston. 617.975.0500. bu.edu/prc]