PHOT 252Hist. of Photo.:1940-Present

Catalog

This course examines photography's central role in both reflecting and shaping the cultural, social, political, economic, and scientific context from 1940 to the present. In addition to examining the medium's major movements and practitioners within this context, the course will also emphasize the developing history, theory, and criticism of the medium, its relationship to modernism and postmodernism in other media, and its capacity for expressing human diversity (incl. gender, sex, sexuality, race, class, and nationality). Students will be introduced to various methods of historical investigation from different cultural perspectives through a mix of asynchronous lectures and primary/secondary source readings balanced with synchronous discussions, field trips to view historical photographic objects, group projects, and writing assignments. Assessments prioritize student agency, creativity, and engagement with the material as critical authors of photographic meaning.