Introductory description

This module aims to introduce students to a wide range of historical and theoretical debates in the history of photography

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Nineteenth-century photographic processes
Twentieth-century photographic processes
Photography and Truth
Photography and Ethics
Photography and Art
Photography and Power

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Understand the historical development of photographic technologies
• Undertake visual analysis of photographic images
• Understand key conceptual debates about photography from its beginnings to the present
• Discuss recent historiographical and theoretical approaches to photography
• Present an argument, initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• Undertake research and to write up the results as a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
• Show familiarity with essential ICT skills
• Collaborate effectively with others
• Demonstrate understanding of diverse viewpoints
• Find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
• Formulate a sustained argument
• Think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• Demonstrate sophisticated visual analysis
• Demonstrate bibliographical skills at an appropriate level
• Demonstrate critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context
• Discuss postcolonial critiques of photography
• Demonstrate a knowledge of global photographic practices

Indicative reading list

Liz Wells, ed., Photography: A Critical Introduction, Routledge, 1996
Mary Warner Marion, Photography: A Cultural History, London, 2002
Susan Sontag, On Photography, Penguin, 1979
John Tagg, The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories, MacMillan, 1988
Elizabeth Edwards, Photography and Anthropology, 1860-1920, Yale University Press, 1992
Alan Trachtenberg, Reading American Photographs, Hill & Wang, 1990
Geoffrey Batchen, Forget Me Not: Photography & Remembrance, Princeton Architectural Press, 2994
Richard Bolton, ed., The Contest of Meaning: Critical Histories of Photography, MIT Press, 1989
Geoffrey Batchen, Burning with Desire: The Conception of Photography, MIT Press, 1997

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

• To understand technical processes and learn to identify different photographic media
• To understand the relationship between changes in the photographic apparatus and the use of the medium in public and private contexts
• To be able to undertake a visual analysis of photographic images
• To understand conceptual debates about photography from its beginnings to the present
• To be able to discuss and evaluate recent historiographical and theoretical approaches to photography and its history
• Demonstrate sophisticated visual analysis
• Demonstrate critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Transferable skills

• Present an argument, initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• Ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
• Familiarity with essential ICT skills
• Ability to collaborate effectively with others
• Show understanding of diverse viewpoints
• Ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
• Ability to formulate a sustained argument
• Think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• Demonstrate bibliographical skills at an appropriate level