Ethics of the Image

Catalog description

From its invention in 1839, photography has been heralded as objective. Few doubt the veracity of a photo-finish, an endoscopic medical image, a traffic camera's violation report, or a surveillance shot of a crime scene. Photographs bear witness to the Mai Lai massacre, the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, the Sahel famine of the 1980s, and refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war. Though most readily embrace such visual testimony, we might also cede Susan Sontag's point that photos are a "species of rhetoric" that "simplify" and "create the illusion of consensus." In what ways do a photographer's choices of what to include and exclude suggest self-conscious framing from a specific vantage point? What ethical questions emerge from this tension between the medium's supposed objectivity and the photographer's admitted subjectivity? Students will explore ethical scenarios in photojournalism, travel photography, street photography, portraiture, and commercial photography as they confront questions about consent, privacy, representation, citizen responsibility, and propaganda. Coursework includes response papers, case study reports, photo-critiques, photography tasks, and photo essays.