Photography and Fiction

Catalog description

Photography has historically been a medium of fact, but with the ubiquity of digital technology and the ever-increasing ease with which images can be manipulated, it is becoming more difficult to distinguish the authentic from the artificial. The conversation surrounding truth is pervasive in today’s contemporary culture. With the weaponization of fake news and propaganda, subliminal advertising, deep fake videos, and constructed identities on social media, we are living in a critical time. This course will encompass a broad range of meanings when it comes to fiction, from elaborately staging for the camera in the form of re-enactment and role-play to using digital technology to construct new meanings & realities. This class will examine and trace the history of photographic fiction, paying special attention to the complex negotiations between the decisive moment, the constructed tableau, and the digitally altered image. There will be a combination of class lectures, studio projects, assigned readings, visiting artists, film screenings, field trips, and class critiques.