Unit 11: Exploration
With this assignment, you will…
Reflect on your existing work and identify patterns that feel authentic to your style.
Explore a new genre or approach that challenges your usual habits.
Create a new image that blends familiar instincts with a new perspective, connected to your long-term project if possible.
Trace, Shift, Repeat
This assignment is designed to help you recognize your voice, try on new perspectives, and create something intentional and reflective. You’ll revisit your previous work, explore genre, and push yourself into unfamiliar territory—then bring it all together in a new image that says something about where you’re headed next.
Instructions
Step One: Trace Your Voice
Review your photos from this course or your archive. Choose 5–8 images that feel connected—this could be a mood, subject, structure, or something more abstract. Don’t pick based on perfection. Pick what feels like you.
Write a short reflection in your Learning Journal or in Discord:
• What do these images have in common?
• What draws you to them?
• What might they reveal about your instincts or style?
Step Two: Shift Perspective
Pick a genre or approach you don’t normally use. If you need ideas, refer to the Exploring Genres lesson.
Make one new photo using this unfamiliar method. The goal isn’t to master it, just to test your range. Let it be awkward if it needs to be.
Take notes on the experience: What was difficult? What felt unexpectedly interesting?
Step Three: Repeat with Intention
Create one final image for your long-term project. This image should combine the thread you identified in Step One with something you learned in Step Two.
In your reflection, explain how this image builds on your earlier work and stretches it in a new direction.
tl;dr: What to Hand In
5–8 connected images from your past work
One genre experiment image
One final image for your long-term project
A short reflection on the process and what you learned
Your submission posted in Discord for feedback
We are having regular events on the discord. Check there for the next feedback session and other workshops!
Don’t forget to write in your Learning Journals!
Enjoying the class?
This class runs entirely on volunteer effort, and donations help cover the costs of keeping it available and free for everyone.