Race, Civil Rights, and Photography in America

Catalog description

This course examines the intersections of race, civil rights, and photography in the United States. Students will learn critical concepts in the field of photography, such as visibility, performativity, and the gaze. Students will also learn to critically engage with, deconstruct, and analyze issues of race and civil rights in the production and dissemination of photography. Students will uncover a spectrum of historical and co-occurring debates about the significance of vision in marking race in the context of the United States. Questions we will ask throughout the class are: How does photography contribute to the construction of race? How does the photograph function as evidence of the markings and conservation of race in America? Students will explore a variety of photographic practices, including vernacular photography and daguerreotypes from the nineteen-century. We will examine 1960s photojournalism and the documentary work of photographers like Gordon Parks, and investigate activist photography of the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panthers, and Black Lives Matter. Finally, students will investigate the works of contemporary artists, such as Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, Lyle Ashton Harris, and Joshua Rashaad McFadden.