Contemporary Photo Theory

Catalog description

In his 1984 review of his talk, Something about Photography, Victor Burgin writes: "It seems reasonable to assume that the object of photography theory is, at base, the photograph. But what is a photograph?" Photography is a complicated and slippery medium to define, widely employed, in multiple contexts, for a variety of purposes. Nonetheless, despite its mutability, the photographic image has its own inherent specific characteristics that transcend equipment and process. After almost two centuries of vastly changing technologies, so many of us are still engaged in the very same act of using a device to put a frame around a portion of the world and freeze it in time. So, what is it we are doing? What does it mean? How does the resulting image function? And how do the images we consume shape what we think we understand about ourselves, the world, and the other people in it? In this course, students will consider the ideas of writers, thinkers, curators such as Stephen Shore, Gerry Badger, Charlotte Cotton, Thierry de Duve, Jan Baetens, David Campany, Mark Alice Durant, and Kate Palmer Albers, amongst others. Coursework will consist of group discussions, theoretical readings and writing, research assignments, examining the practices of photographers and their images, gallery/museum visits, and individual presentations.