Course meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:00 PM–2:15 PM
Elvehjem Building, Room 140
“For the brief moment immortalized by a photograph, the impossible happens, and we are encouraged.” With this declaration in the July 26 New York Times column on photography dedicated to “The Superhero Photographs of the Black Lives Matter Movement,” critic Teju Cole addresses the power of certain photographs to go viral and affect the everyday. This course offers an introduction to the history and theory of the diverse and pervasive field of photography from its origins in the desire to work with light and shadows to declarations of its death in the drive toward the digital. The course emphasizes that to understand the history of photography means exploring the range of photography’s social, political and cultural practices from the documentary to the selfie and Instagram, from the conventions of the photo I.D. and tactics of surveillance to the use of photography in avant-garde art practices. The readings for the course introduce you to the important critics who demonstrate how issues of class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and economic, historical, and geopolitical relations of power are inseparable from the historical study of the medium of photography — its practice, dissemination, valuation, and interpretation. No prior knowledge of the history of photography or art history is assumed or required.
History and Theory of Photography: The Archive, Desire, & Writing with Light 