Faculty : Art Academy of Cincinnati

Kenn Knowlton

“My goal as an artist is through my work to come to a clearer understanding of myself and the world around me. And to continue to grow, refining the craft and economy of my artistic expression. I am always a little surprised that a photograph that was completely successful and satisfying to me years ago in retrospect, while being key to getting to the photographs I am now making, seem somehow naive and uninformative. Did the photograph change, did my standards for success change, or did I change? I always hope the answer is that I changed. I presume I already have absorbed what I learned by making that image feel less excited by it, as there is little more to be learned from it.”

Courses
Digital Arts I. II, III
Digital Media I. II
Darkroom Photography
Digital Photography
Color & Photo Media
History of Photography
Foundation Studies
Color Theory
Creative Process
Introduction To Western Philosophy

“The most important thing I learned as an undergraduate student was to not attribute my intensions to others. During those years I discovered the reasons for making art are usually personal. Each artist has his or her own reasons for ‘needing” to make art. Many say that they do it to communicate with others their ideas, or show others a new way of seeing things. I have come to realize over many years that my own motivation for making art has nothing to do with showing things to others. I make photographs to understand the world. In some way every photograph I make helps me clarify who I am and what I think is important.”

Degrees
Bachelor of Arts 1971 Philosophy - Ohio State University
Bachelor of Science 1974 Photography & Cinema - Ohio State University
Master of Arts 1976 Photography & Cinema w/ minor Art Education - Ohio State University

“Before I came to teach at the Art Academy I taught at (what at the time was) the second largest university in the world. My smallest class was thirty students, that is thirty students with whom I have no contact with except when they are in my class. Teaching amounted to me lecturing, giving tests, and them turning in their photographs, and me assigning grades. There was never an opportunity to get to know my students or for my teaching to be more directed toward individual students needs. I wanted to teach at a smaller school where I could have a one to one relationship functioning both as a teacher and mentor.”

Contact
kknowlton@artacademy.edu

“For inspiration I have recently been studying the work of photographer Henri Cartier -Bresson. I have been looking at his photographs and reading his philosophy. It has had an effect on my current work. Here are some of the quotes that have been pivotal. “Many photographers think far too much about technique and not enough about seeing”. “What the camera does is simply register on film the decisions made by the eye”. “The photograph involves a joint operation of the brain, the eye, and the heart”. “To me photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give the event proper expression.”

“Bee On My Patio” 2007 Digital Paint 13x19	“Dead Hibiscus” 2008 Digital Paint 13x19
“Hibiscus In Cardboard Box” 2008 Digital Photo 13x19	“White Rose” 2008 Digital Paint 13x19

“The project I am working on now is in part a reaction to having spent the summer driving all over the state photographing old barns and one hundred year old historical sites. The price of gasoline and exhaustion has caused me to turn to the back yard for subject matter. Some of the resulting images are featured here on this web site. They are large color prints approximately 13 X 19 inches. They are not really about the apparent subject matter (Bees and flowers). They are about seeing. They are about change associated with the passage of time. They are about color, texture and craft. Mostly they are about the difference between art and life!”