Documentary Photography

Catalog description

Documentary Photography: the Social and Built Landscape Documentary photography explores issues, often social, humanistic and/or political, in man-made culture. This course examines the work of nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first century documentarians while students photographically investigate their own topics. Among the many ethical areas of a documentarian's concern, the course examines (through looking at the documentary tradition and through the student's own work) the following: the photographer's relationship to the subject; the choices involved in representing the subject; the act of selectivity in framing the subject; the reasons for making documentary photographs; the intended audience for documentary photography; and the appropriate final display of the photographs? Extensive shooting, printing, and library research. Prerequisite: A beginning photography course, or by the permission of the instructor.