Dissertations and Theses

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Art

Keywords

Photography, Carlotta M. Corpron, Instructions

Abstract

"From 1935 to 1968 abstract photographer Carlotta M. Corpron (1901-1988) taught several courses including art history, design, advertising design, photography, and creative photography at Texas State College for Women (TSCW) in Denton, Texas.1 Corpron pursued her photographic work through a series of progressively abstract experimentations which she called: “Nature Studies,” “Light Drawings,” “Light Patterns,” “Light Follows Form,” “Space Compositions,” and “Fluid Light Designs.” (Fig. 1) As she developed her own abstract style of photography, Corpron simultaneously shared her experiments with her students, and encouraged their own individuality. Corpron’s teaching was directly influenced by her own education, both formal and informal. Most importantly, her informal introduction to the teachings of the New Bauhaus and her interaction with László Moholy-Nagy and György Kepes corresponded with her own teaching ideas, and she shared what she learned with her students. For many of her students, being asked to investigate the design potentials of light and shadow and their manipulation as a subject meant looking at the world around them in a new and challenging way. In combining specific features of her own education, including the most modern thinking in art instruction, and the progressive photography movements occurring on the East and West coasts, Corpron made TSCW a microcosm of modern photographic education."

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